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The scintillating Queensland Reds stamped themselves as genuine Super 14 contenders on Saturday night with dramatic 19-12 upset of the defending champion Bulls at Lang Park.
Captain Will Genia produced a sensational display at scrum half to lead his team into the top four as they successfully ran the monster Bulls pack off their feet for 70 minutes before holding on with some stubborn defence in a helter-skelter affair.
The two-tries-all win, which left the 26,669 Brisbane crowd in raptures, looms as the launching pad towards a first finals campaign in nine years for the perennial battlers.
Queensland's sixth win of the season, and certainly its most memorable, sees them leapfrog the Waratahs (28 points) into fourth place on the Super 14 table with 30 points.
The victory was tarnished with a suspected ankle ligament injury to stalwart lock Van Humphries, who stood extremely tall to outpoint Bulls skipper Victor Matfield.
But none were better than Genia who did everything, including setting up Queensland's first try with the vision and execution to put Scott Higginbotham over with a 80m kick following a Bulls attacking turnover.
"Outstanding effort. We spoke about application, effort and attitude before the game and we came out and did all those things," Genia said.
"We (have learnt) how to win tight games and how to stay in the contest and we definitely did that."
The Reds were unlucky not to race up a comfortable lead such was their dominance for the first hour of the match.
But a Morne Steyn ankle tap on Rod Davies, great last-ditch defence by full-back Zane Kirchner and several last passes just going astray kept the visitors in the game at 8-7 down at half-time.
"Being young the team is open to new ideas and we are trying new things every week because we haven't got the experience to play the same way as the Bulls," Reds' coach Ewen McKenzie said.
"We have to be more creative than that and tonight was another good example and it's a testament to the players that they actually listen and implement it."
Queensland's pack was even winning scrum penalties and scrum feeds off resets by bullying the exhausted Springbok-laden Bulls forwards.
When the visitors lost a rare line-out off their own throw in the 58th minute, Queensland's backline pounced with centre Will Chambers fading into space and then flick passing for Anthony Faingaa and Digby Ioane to put Rod Davies over for a 19-7 lead.
But a schoolboy error, allowing the ball to roll straight out of the scrum tunnel, allowed Pedrie Wannenburg to crash over to set up an extremely tense final 10 minutes.
The Bulls camped in the Reds quarter for the last five minutes before veteran hooker Sean Hardman was hugged by all and sundry when he forced a ruck penalty in the final minute.
The Reds grabbed a one-point lead at the end of the pulsating first half when playmaker Quade Cooper kicked his first successful attempt at his third chance.
For all of the Reds' audacious attack it was the Bulls who scored the only try of the first 28 minutes with flanker Derick Kuun finishing a 75m counter-attack in his 50th Super game in the sixth minute.
Higginbotham got Queensland on the board when he outsprinted Bulls centres Wynand Olivier and Stephan Dippenaar to score from a perfect kick by Genia.
Digby Ioane was a stand-out for the Reds while the Faingaa twins - Anthony and Saia - were in the thick of everything.
Yet again after 14 years the Bulls have still to win the final match of an Australasian tour.
"It was a great game and both teams carried the ball a fair bit," Bulls' skipper Matfield said.
"We couldn't get our hands on the ball for 20 minutes after half-time, they kept the ball well and they tested our defence, but then again we kept them out for quite a few phases, well done to them."
Reds: 19 (R Davies, S Higginbotham tries; Q Cooper 3 penalties)
Bulls: 12 (D Kuun, P Wannenburg tries; M Steyn conversion)
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