Queensland Reds coach Ewen McKenzie will consider tempering his team’s attacking style after they suffered a crushing 61-8 Super Rugby loss and further injuries against the Bulls in Pretoria.
The Bulls bullied the Reds with punishing defence and ran in eight tries to one at Loftus Versfeld Sunday morning (AEDT), as defending champion Queensland suffered back-to-back losses for the first time since 2010.
The rampaging Bulls scored all but one of their tries in the second half, four of them in the final 15 minutes, when the match started to stir uneasy memories of the Reds’ infamous 92-3 flogging by the Bulls at the same venue five years ago.
It was the Reds’ heaviest loss and biggest score conceded since that game.
Compounding the defeat were more additions to a Reds’ injury list already including playmakers Quade Cooper, Mike Harris and Ben Lucas.
Prop Ben Daley (suspected broken thumb)and hooker Saia Faingaa (ankle syndesmosis) were off before halftime and centre Jono Lance (suspected broken leg) joined them in the second half.
Lock Van Humphries (broken nose) returned to the field after his injury and unlike the other latest casualties would seem to have some chance of playing against the Western Force in Perth next Saturday.
“A week is a long time in this sport … it doesn’t mean we have to give up. We won’t be giving up,” McKenzie told AAP.
“We’ll take stock and dust ourselves off and keep going.
“We’re not going to die in a ditch. It’s not our finest hour, but it’s not the end of the competition either.”
McKenzie refused to use the mounting injury toll as an excuse but his team may have to adopt a more simple and conservative game, at least until it gets some more key players back on deck.
The Bulls dominated up front and ruthlessly exploited turnovers and many missed tackles, as Queensland unsuccessfully attempted to attack their way out of trouble.
McKenzie said the Reds went into the game with an attacking mindset but felt it seemed to compound their problems as they chased the game and kept turning the ball over through poor decisions and execution at the breakdown.
“Even the last scrum of the game was probably indicative, we were still attacking from our own goal line,” McKenzie said.
“Maybe that’s silly I don’t know. But in the end that’s the way the team functions, we try and play and it didn’t work tonight.”
Asked if it would mean he might consider a more conservative style of play McKenzie admitted “we’ll have to look at the whole thing.”
“Every 40 minutes we’ve got a different combination through injury, so we’ve got to keep looking at what’s the simplest way to go about it.”
The Bulls piled on 34 unanswered points to lead 37-3 before winger Dom Shipperley finished well to score Queensland’s only try in the 61st minute.
