Updated July 07, 2012 09:12:40
Reds captain Will Genia praised his side for its back-to-the-wall defensive effort in keeping out the Highlanders in Queensland's nail-biting 19-13 win at Lang Park on Friday night.
Wallabies five-eighth Quade Cooper played his best game of 2012 as the Reds kept their Super Rugby title defence alive in the penultimate round despite almost giving up a 16-point second-half lead.
But they had to do it tough in the final exchanges with three minutes of gutsy defence on their own try-line on full-time.
The desperate Highlanders attacked the line over multiple phases but a string of try-saving tackles, including two by man-of-the-match Cooper, saved the day before Jake Schatz produced a ruck turnover.
"That's something we pride ourselves on, defence on our line," Genia told Grandstand.
"We spoke about it, we consider those tries [as] soft and very unlike this group, so we addressed it.
"When our backs are against the wall we came up with the big play and thank God we came away with the result."
A fifth straight win moves Queensland into the top six, at least temporarily, with just its last-round match against arch-rival New South Wales to come on Saturday week.
A loss would have virtually been curtains for the home side, which would have dropped to eighth.
"We had to come away with the points ... nothing better than a win would do for us," Genia admitted.
"I guess we took that approach into the game.
"It's more so depending on the result [next] weekend against the Waratahs - we've got to win and nothing short of a win will get us into that six and hopefully we can be in contention for the finals."
Cooper, noticeably growing in confidence in his fourth match back from knee surgery, was a stand-out to show he is back near the form which took the Reds to last year's title.
The Wallabies five-eighth regularly took on the advantage line, muscled up in defence and threw some signature spiral passes that put his team-mates into space.
The goalkicking of Mike Harris, who slotted five from six, was also crucial for the Reds as they scored one try to the Highlanders' two.
"We wanted to turn pressure into points with penalty kicks," Genia said.
"To Mikey's credit he was knocking them over from everywhere."
Queensland looked home and hosed when prop James Slipper was rewarded for a strong display with a 57th-minute try in the right corner for a 16-3 lead.
But the Highlanders fired back with tries to Adam Thomson and Chris King off the back of concerted pressure to close the gap to six points with six minutes left.
Missed conversions cost the visitors dearly, meaning they needed a converted try at the death to win instead of a mere penalty goal, which they could have taken.
The win came at a worrying cost for the Reds as lock Rob Simmons (knee), flanker Beau Robinson (foot) and winger Chris F'Sautia (hamstring) were all injured.
It was gut-wrenching to see teenage talent F'Sautia tear his hamstring as he made one of the few line breaks of the first half off a Cooper cut-out pass.
The Australian under-20 three-quarter has battled hamstring issues for the past three years and Queensland had believed they had solved his problems.
The previous match between the two sides resulted in a 11-try special but that was in stark contrast to a stop-start first half dominated by Jonathan Kaplan's whistle and Highlanders handling errors.
Genia said the Reds' plan was simple for the next week.
"Just prepare as well as we can, not think too much about what's ahead of us," he said.
"We've just got to make sure we worry about the process more than anything else, worry about doing things effectively in-game and letting the result take care of itself."
Reds: 19 (J Slipper try; M Harris 1/1 conversions, 4/5 penalty goals)
Highlanders: 13 (A Thompson, C King tries; M Delany 1/2 penalty goals)
AAP/ABC
Tags: super-rugby,
rugby-union,
sport,
brisbane-4000,
qld,
australia,
south-africa First posted July 06, 2012 21:33:07
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