Reds coach Brad Thorn has slammed his side's "immature" loss to the Brumbies, after they let a 15-0 lead turn into a 45-21 defeat.
Thorn gave credit to the Brumbies when he spoke to reporters post match but was clearly unhappy with the way his side managed the match after shooting out to a 15 point lead.
"I thought it was an immature performance from our team," Thorn said.
"Coming off the bye, I felt we were a little bit flat in the warmup perhaps - sometimes you just see how it goes.
"We started the game well, but when you get in those strong positions that’s when you need to keep putting the pressure on and, I guess, keeping your foot on the throat.
"Credit to the Brumbies, they chipped their way back into the game and the momentum swung which it does in professional footy."
Thorn pointed to his side's ill-discipline as one of the factors which opened the door to a Brumbies side that had their backs to the wall.
"I think we were called offside three or four times," Thorn said.
"Little things like that where they got a penalty, kicked downfield and had field position.
"Losing Chris (Feauai-Sautia) for 10 minutes is always tough against a good side at that time of the game.
"I think we had a few tries against us in that period but that's Super Rugby - it’s tough to win games of Super Rugby.
“You’re not always going to feel fizzing as a team.
“We had a big trip, we had a bye we prepped well this week but I’ve played plenty of games where I felt flat, that’s fine, but you’ve still got to get the job done.
“Perhaps early on things came reasonably comfortably, but it’s definitely a learning curve.”
James Slipper shared the same sentiment.
"There were just a few moments there where we kicked off and weren't good enough at putting pressure on the Brumbies," Slipper said.
"We made it easy for them to get out of their own half and then play in the half they wanted.
"That momentum built up and against any Super Rugby team if you give them momentum and give them that amount of ball, they're hard to stop."
