REACTION: Rebels captain unloads on team's 'culture of excuses' as Reds content to 'win ugly'

“It was pretty ugly, to be honest.”

Queensland co-captain Tate McDermott’s blunt response when asked about the Reds’ 23-5 win over the Melbourne Rebels in their first game of Super Rugby Trans-Tasman said little, but captured it all.

In slippery conditions at Suncorp Stadium thanks to a mid-match downpour, the reigning Super Rugby AU champions have produced far better performances in the last few years, but will be keen to pocket four valuable points and quickly move on from an ugly encounter.

“There’s not too many positives,” McDermott, captaining the Reds for the first time for competition points, said in a post-match interview with Stan Sport.

“It was pretty ugly, to be honest. Similar errors to what we discussed last year, an inability to hold the ball for periods of time was pretty disappointing from our point of view.

“I guess it’s an ugly win. … but it’s a good start, and a win’s a win.”

McDermott wasn’t alone in being unimpressed by the Reds’ performance despite the victory; coach Brad Thorn was quick to point out his side’s flaws, while expressing relief at finding a way to, as the co-captain put it, win ugly.

“I thought we could have been better… down into the corners, field position, building pressure, using a more tight play. I think it’s something we’ll need to look at,” Thorn said on Stan Sport.

“But in wet conditions… we want to be able to do the job on nights like this.

“We got two trials this year through COVID, so to get the win tonight in front of your home crowd… we’ll take the positives out of it and go forward.

“We have to get better in this competition. It’s a strong competition, you’ve got New Zealand sides too… it’s game one, we got a win here, and on to next week.”

Former Red turned Stan Sport media analyst Morgan Turinui described the evening in nicer terms, labelling the victory as ‘gritty’, while giving the Reds a pass for their interrupted lead-up and the decision to manage the minutes of key names including Taniela Tupou.

“I thought Tate McDermott summed it up, in his own way. Gritty… they did what they needed to do, they found the win, they found ways to impose themselves when they needed to,” Turinui said.

“So much to work on for the Reds, but they would have known coming in, Tate himself missing the lead-ups with COVID, Hunter Paisami out, limited minutes for Mafi and Tupou and Jordan Petaia.

“They found a way to get through round one. Winning ugly… that’s what you need to do at times. You cannot be at your peak all the way through Super Rugby Pacific.”

The Rebels did their status as wooden spoon favourites no help with an error-filled display, a series of drops around the ground making defence difficult and attack all but impossible.

Turinui urged the struggling club to quickly get to the bottom of what went wrong.

“For the Rebels, I’m really interested that they go back now and found out the why,” he said.

“They say they had a good gameplan, they say they want to be better, they say it’s about results.

“It’s really important that they go back and find out why and how they can improve the pieces they need to.”

Alex Mafi of the Reds is tackled during the round one Super Rugby Pacific match between the Queensland Reds and the Melbourne Rebels. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

He couldn’t have been more scathing, however, than Rebels captain Michael Wells, the 28-year old giving his side both barrels after the match.

“Can’t blame conditions for how we played… we had a good gameplan to come in and we didn’t execute,” he said.

“We’ve got to get away from a culture of excuses. To blame the weather’s probably not good enough, we’ve got to blame ourselves.”

In the brief moments between their own scrappy performance, the Reds’ extra class oozed through, player of the match Harry Wilson’s miraculous put-down early in the second half to all but seal the deal for the home side summing up where the two sides find themselves heading into the new season.

Wilson did his chances of a Wallabies-call up for the winter Tests no harm with a typically bullocking performance, with former Australian coach Michael Cheika praising the 22-year old’s core strength.

“He’s got that, I don’t know what it’s called, that ability to bounce people with the hips,” Cheika said on Stan Sport after the match.

“I’ve said it before, but he reminds me a heap of David Lyons. I really like him, he’s a great link between forwards and backs.”

100th-gamer James O’Connor had a rough start to the game, bulldozed in the opening minutes by Rebels captain Michael Wells, but the Wallabies fly-half would bounce back with a solid kicking game, scoring a pair of penalties and a conversion.

McDermott admitted after his first match in charge that the captaincy was ‘a bit new’, while praising teammates for providing him valuable support.

“I’m just lucky I’ve got guys like Lukhan [Salakaia-Loto] and James O’Connor out there that help me out when stuff isn’t going our way,” McDermott said.

“I guess I’m proud of this group, it’s an honour to be co-captain.”

An eventful evening for prop Taniela Tupou began with the popular Wallaby scoring the first try of the night in the corner, before being sent to the sin-bin just minutes later.

But the ‘Tongan Thor’ found himself well and truly in the black by the time the night ended, revealing on Stan Sport that he and his partner are expecting their first child.