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It may be a bit early to call "bring out your dead", but then again they were woeful over the weekend...
Taken from the roar website
Reds looking like Super 14 also-rans again
Rookie Queensland coach Phil Mooney faces his first big test as the Reds stare down the barrel of another barren Super 14 season following their 43-11 capitulation to an inexperienced Brumbies.
After confidently predicting the Reds first ever win in Canberra against a Brumbies outfit missing eight stars through injury, a stunned Mooney said he would consider wielding the selection axe before Saturday’s home match against the Stormers.
Queensland’s woes overshadowed a weekend of solid results for Australian sides as the NSW Waratahs rallied to pip the Highlanders 15-12 in a wet Dunedin and the Western Force completed their three-match South African tour with a second win, 18-16 over the Lions in Johannesburg.
But a Queensland side boasting Wallabies Chris Latham, Morgan Turinui, Berrick Barnes, Rodney Blake, Stephen Moore and Greg Holmes might have begun having flashbacks of the 92-3 loss to the Bulls which ended last season as the “Baby Brumbies” ran riot - even after losing Wallaby fullback Julian Huxley in the third minute with concussion.
“We’ve got a lot to work on so I think it’s back to basics and look at selections and a bit of self reflection from a few players,” Mooney said.
“You can turn it around in a week, it’s certainly going to be difficult but I’m not going to accept that and I know that group don’t accept it because they’re better so we’ve just got to be a lot tougher.
“We have to make change, clearly.”
One of those changes for the 2007 wooden spooners will be on the wing after Digby Ioane was rubbed out for three matches today for a dangerous tackle, while there could also be a call-up for exciting youngster Quade Cooper after centre Chris Siale strained a hamstring.
“At the end of the day we can’t throw the toys out of the cot now,” Mooney said.
“We’ve got another nine games and we’ve got to be better and we’ve just got to work hard and there’s no easy answers.”
The result left Queensland eighth on the table while the Brumbies moved up to sixth.
The Waratahs held on to fourth spot with their second win of the campaign but will need to assess an AC joint injury to fullback Lachie Turner this week.
NSW fought back from a two-try deficit at Carisbrook and coach Ewen McKenzie said it didn’t concern him that he wasn’t seeing his side’s best form early in the season.
“I think there’s still plenty of scope for improvement,” he told AAP. “I don’t really want to have everything sorted at the moment, I want to keep building as we go along.
“We’ll certainly go back to training and try and fine tune things but we’re not having to reinvent the game every week.”
The Waratahs host the red-hot Brumbies on Friday and McKenzie isn’t sure what to make of the Canberrans’ demolition of Queensland.
“I think the nature of the competition is you can’t really assess too much,” he said.
“At the moment I think the beauty of the Super 14 is everything can change in a week.”
Basically Ewen is not going to say anything because he would be nervous as hell after the Tahs escape in Dunedin, and the current form of the Brumbies...No Aussie team can afford to brag about its form just yet, even the Brumbies as the opposition seemed to forget to get off the bus...
The seventh-placed Force return to Perth with their tough South African leg - and the Matt Henjak controversy - out of the way after their narrow wins over the Lions and Cheetahs and a close loss to the Sharks.
The Blues lead the table outright on 15 points with the Crusaders (14) second and the Sharks, who avenged last year’s final loss to the Bulls with a 29-15 victory, third on 13.
by David Beniuk