While Australia’s hoodoo might still remain against New Zealand teams, the Queensland Reds pulled off an almighty upset to keep their Super Rugby season alive.
That was the story of round 11, with Brad Thorn’s Reds stunning the Lions with an unbelievable first-half performance on Saturday.
Queensland led 24-0 at halftime against last year’s grand finalists and received a standing ovation from the Suncorp Stadium crowd.
The South African conference leaders were always going to bounce back to give Reds supporters heart palpations before the hosts hung on to claim a memorable 27-22 victory.
The fourth win of their campaign lifted the Reds to 17 points and above the Brumbies on the Australian conference table.
In Canberra, the Brumbies couldn’t do enough to cause a major upset of their own against the powerhouse Crusaders.
The hosts had their chances in Saturday night’s match at GIO Stadium but lost 21-8 after failing to take advantage of the visitors being two men down for eight minutes.
The top of the standings Crusaders scored all their points in a 15-minute period midway through the first half, after Henry Speight opened the scoring first for the Brumbies.
The result extended the dominance of New Zealand teams over their Australian rivals to 36consecutive wins.
Disciplinary issues cost the Melbourne Rebels dearly in their 34-18 loss against the Stormers as they slumped to a fourth-straight loss.
Having lost to the Bulls in Pretoria the previous week, the result extended the franchise’s winless record in South Africa to 15 matches.
After being the early frontrunners in the Australian conference, the Rebels sit second behind the NSW Waratahs on 21 points.
The Waratahs, who are three poiunts ahead of the Rebels, had the bye and have a game in hand on the three other Australian teams.
There will be a golden opportunity for the Waratahs to break the New Zealand hoodoo next Saturday when they host the struggling Blues (2-7) at Brookvale Oval.
Other results saw the Highlanders take a heart-stopping 29-28 against the Bulls in Pretoria to keep in touch with the Crusaders at the top of the New Zealand conference.
The Jaguares continued their winning ways by accounting for the Blues 20-13 in Auckland to sit second in the South African conference.
The winless Sunwolves (0-9) were belted 43-15 by the Hurricanes in Wellington.