The Queensland Reds took a commanding lead in the Australian conference of rugby’s Super 15 on Friday with a 33-18 win over the Melbourne Rebels.
The Reds, who had their record seven-match winning streak broken last week, have a 13-point lead over the New South Wales Waratahs after 12 of 18 regular-season rounds.
Scott Higginbotham, Digby Ioane, Radike Samo and Dom Shipperley scored tries to give the Reds their bonus-point win over the first-year Rebels.
While disappointed with his side’s fourth consecutive loss, Rebels and former Wallabies coach Rod Macqueen said he was pleased with some aspects of the performance.
“We did a lot of the hard things very well tonight,” Macqueen said. “The work by the Reds at the breakdown has been second to none and we matched them in those areas, but we let ourselves down with the simple things again and with a good side like the Reds, you can’t do that.”
He said Rebels captain Stirling Mortlock played “his best game all year”.
“He’s an inspiring leader and he had an outstanding game,” Macqueen said.
While his team’s performance was at times patchy, Reds coach Ewen McKenzie said he was happy to come away from Melbourne with four points, adding that it was the first time since 1996 that Queensland have won nine games in a Super Rugby season.
“We wanted to make sure we came down here and got a result, some teams have come here and done well and some have come here and done very badly,” McKenzie said. “You’ve got to give credit to the opposition, they got stuck in.” — Sapa-AP