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It was far from the game it promised to be but the Queensland Reds have scored a first up win in a tight 21-20 win at Suncorp Stadium. Over 26,000 fans packed out the stadium in the hopes of a repeat of the sensational attacking performance the Reds served up to the Force in 2010. The Force came out firing, however, and the Reds will consider themselves lucky to have come away with the win.
As it Happened
The match started ominously with Queensland putting early pressure on the Force line after a bungled restart. While the Reds looked good early on attack, Quade Cooper could only bring away 3 points in a penalty for the Reds.
From the kick-off the Force finally found themselves and were equally threatening in attack. The next 15 minutes were all Force as quick ball had the Reds under constant pressure. While not crossing the line, the Force racked up 3 penalties from the boot of O'Connor to lead the Reds 9-3.
Some bad handling by Cameron Shepherd gifted the Reds a scrum in the Force's 22 and, after a drinks break, Cooper kicked another 3 points from an ensuing penalty. On the 25 minute mark a gift from the gods saw Will Chambers bomb a guaranteed try, fumbling the ball over the tryline.
After this reprieve, the Force went hot on attack again. Cam Shepherd crossed the line from a well worked scrum move only to have be held up by a determined James Horwill. Some fireworks erupted just on the stroke of half time seeing Brett Sheehan proving his worth in earning Rocketman Rod Davies a yellow sticker and giving the Force 3 points. (Half time score Force 12 - Reds 6).
The Force failed to make the most of their man advantage with play slowing down and a lot of kicking for territory. In the ten minutes that Davies was off the Reds narrow the gap with yet another Cooper penalty. Cooper missed another in the 53rd minute before James O'Connor extended the Force's lead with a penalty. It was a penalty-bonanza up to this point but the Reds finally posted a try in the 62nd minute to Saia Faingaa.
A crafty line-out move saw a short throw returned to the hooker who slid over the line. Cooper missed the conversion and the Force held onto a 1 point advantage. Things then took a disastrous turn with Matt Hodgson sent to the bin for repeated breakdown infringements. However just when it looked like the Reds would run away with it, James O'Connor scored a runaway try after a Cooper pass hit Anthony Faingaa in the shoulder. The crucial conversion was missed and left the Force only 6 points ahead.
With 5 minutes left to go the Reds rumbled over the line with a try to reserve hooker James Hanson; Cooper slotting the conversion for a one point lead. With just three minutes left everything was not over for the Force, however the boys couldn't find the composure to get themselves into a position to win. James O'Connor kicked the restart directly into touch and moments later a turn-over saw an opportunity out wide but Mitch Inman fumbled the pass and with it went the last hopes of a Force victory.
The Wash-Up
It is hard not to feel a bit heart-broken after the one. The Force had it all over the Reds for most of the game and the only place they didn't win it was on the scoreboard. The Force looked like they wanted it more and definitely played like Wallabies spots were up for grabs.
The Force had a bit of an edge in the scrum while the line-out was fairly even. This despite the monster pack fielded by the Reds. This was a pretty pleasing aspect of the game particularly as the set-piece struggled in the Waratahs trial. The lost line-out that lead to Hanson's try was painful. It showed how essential a fit Nathan Sharpe is, as he was in the blood bin for that line-out.
It was at the breakdown where the Force owned the Reds. Aggressive tackling from the Force backrow and pressure at the breakdown stalled the Red's momentum and nullified the star-studded Red's backline. Ben McCalman's tackling was fantastic and both Pocock and Hodgson were a constant menace. If the quartet can work that kind of magic week in week out in the competition we should get a few wins to make up for the one we missed out on tonight.
The main area to improve for our next game in Perth against the Sharks is our attack and our finishing. Too many opportunities were wasted against the Reds and the team definitely needs to be more clinical in putting the sword to the opposition. That our only try was scored from a 90 metre solo breakaway effort is telling this is a weakness for the Force. In our defence the humid Brisbane conditions produced a slippery ball along with it being the first game of the season and the first time guys like Gene Fairbanks and David Smith have played a competition game for the Force. But we won't win against the Sharks unless we clean up that area of our game. One promising aspect of our attack was that the O'Connor experiment at 10 definitely seemed to work well. He was a bright spark all game and worked well with the quick ball that the backrow were providing.
Man of the Match
Almost all of the Reds seemed out of sorts. All of the razzle-dazzle promised before the match never really eventuated with the Red's forwards unable to build a platform and the backs unable to make something out of nothing. Probably the only Reds player who will be happy with his performance will be Saia Faingaa, whose try brought the Reds back into the match. But even he has played better.
A lot of Force players really impressed in today's game. Gene Fairbanks was a real surprise and showed amazing committment. James O'Connor was another stand-out, accounting for all 20 of the Force's points and adding zip to our attack. Nathan Charles stood out when he came on with remarkable acceleration for a hooker. Sharpie was also tremendous. But at the end of the day, it was the combination of McCalman, Pocock, Hodgson and Brown that caused the Reds the most problems. For his strong ball carries and fierce tackling I'm giving this weeks MOTM at Ben McCalman.
Force Game Score:
The team worked hard and tackled hard. We narrowly lost a game where the Reds were red hot favourites. We scrummed well and our line-out operated quite well with exception to the brief period Sharpie spent off. Where we really let ourselves down was with our ball handling. Handling errors were constantly letting the Reds off the hook with numerous try-scoring chances going to waste. It certainly wasn't a bad effort, though. Much better than we have been in previous season openers. B+