The Queensland Reds have built an admirable ability to fight back in tight finishes yet it has also revealed a less desirable trait that needs fixing against the Brumbies.
The Reds shouldn’t need a moment in the game, a spur or an adverse event, to click into overdrive. Most often it’s reactive.
It’s the point that Reds coach Brad Thorn has been driving this week before the biggest clash at Suncorp Stadium this season takes shape in Super Rugby Pacific on Saturday night.
“Definitely. We want to be the team putting the best foot forward early, not be waiting for certain things in the game to happen before we decide to turn up,” Reds lock Ryan Smith said.
“We’d like to be a lot more clinical and dictate the way the game goes ourselves.
“It was frustrating that we were two men down (against the NSW Waratahs) before we turned up in a way.
“You still take away the positive, of course, that we can turn up like that and put in a good performance 13 men on 15.”
Take the first 10 minutes after half-time against the Waratahs last weekend when the Reds were in emergency mode with just 13 men to scramble.
The Waratahs gained just a 3-0 edge in that period to lock the scores at 13-all. Josh Flook and Jordan Petaia both saved tries with desperate defensive plays and Petaia added another terrific ball chase and 60m kick for safety.
That dig-deep period ignited the Reds. From there, the Reds went into overdrive and won comfortably at 32-20.
It hasn’t been a one-off thing either in 2022.
The Reds led 28-9 against the Fijian Drua, made a bunches of personnel changes and found the scores locked at 28-all in the dying minutes. Up stepped forward Seru Uru to score the winning try and steal a lineout on his own line.
Earlier in the season, the Reds were almost affronted by centre Hunter Paisami’s yellow card for one of the best tackles of the year on Force winger Manasa Mataele.
Down 16-15 with 14 men, James O’Connor stepped up with a pinpoint dab ahead that winger Flook turned into a game-turning try. Reds 29-16.
The Reds had no right to win the wet-night game against the Waratahs early in the season but, from 16-13 down, they found a late Smith try to win in Sydney.
Recently in Canberra, the Brumbies seemed deserved winners at 16-12 yet somehow the Reds had the ball for a final play. A knock-on fizzled a potential fairytale there.
The hang-in, hang-tough mentality to the 80th minute is a precious quality that all teams strive for to be better than just good teams.
If the Reds imagine dictating on Saturday night, cleaning up their average lineout has to be a starting point.
So many of their best attacks are triggered off good lineout ball but that facet is way too unreliable.
A non-Wallaby trio have the main responsibility at the Reds with hooker Josh Nasser throwing to locks Angus Blyth and Smith most often.
As lineout caller, Smith has put his hand up to make sure things run much better against the Brumbies because one of the first lineouts against the Waratahs was an overcomplicated mess.
Brumbies locks Nick Frost and Darcy Swain are expert lineout stealers if they are allowed to be.
“It’s my responsibility as caller. Every lineout call you make, there might be another call that opens up. We want to get better on calling to the right spaces,” Smith said.
“The specific moves don’t have to be too tricky. If you throw it to the top of the leap where the jumper is opposition teams have a slim chance to pick it off. That’s taking it back to basics...get our jump, our throw and our lift right.”
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You feel the extra intensity of these Reds-Brumbies clashes, like that 16-12 contest in Canberra.
“You could feel the physicality battle both teams had been through. I definitely felt it after the game, that soreness from the breakdown area. We’ve got to really turn up around that area,” Smith said.
“The Brumbies are fantastic around that forward play. They got a clinical lineout, a hard edge to their maul and they scrummaging really strongly.”
Being in the thick of it is exactly where Smith and his fellow forwards want to be.
Smith is a product of this late-blooming Reds-Brumbies rivalry in Super Rugby. He's never known a contest that hasn’t been close.
“I just think it’s two proud teams putting it out there for their states. They’ve a really tightknit group down there and I think we are as well,” Smith said.
“They are tight games that go down to the wire. Two great teams battling it out is exactly what you want in this sport.”
