SKIPPER Daniel Herbert says the Queensland Reds want to create their own history at rugby’s ‘House of Pain’ against the Otago Highlanders on Saturday.
Buoyed by Sunday’s hard-fought 31-24 Super 12 win over
arch-rivals NSW Waratahs, the third-placed Reds travel to Dunedin to take on the fifth-placed Highlanders and attempt to do what the Waratahs couldn’t at Ballymore – break a home ground hoodoo.
Queensland have never won a Super 12 match at Carisbrook Stadium, dubbed the ‘House of Pain’ because of the wretched record of visiting teams.
”It certainly hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for us,” Herbert said on Monday.
”The first ever Super 12 game was between us and the Highlanders and we got a nice old spanking over there and it’s happened a few times over the years.”
It took the Wallabies 96 years to crack their first win there, beating the All Blacks 23-15 last year, and Herbert hoped the Reds would follow suit.
”The Wallabies showed last year that it can be done,” Herbert said.
”They broke the hoodoo so we have to go out and create our own little bit of history.”
Boosting their chances of securing a semifinal berth was the likely withdrawal of leading Super 12 pointscorer, Highlanders flyhalf Tony Brown, with a hamstring strain. – Sapa-AFP