Les Kiss’ Reds score ‘one of the best tries’ against arch-rivals Waratahs

Queensland Reds flanker Fraser McReight scored “one of the best tries” in Super Rugby Pacific this season, only to leave the field moments later with an injured shoulder. With players working hard off the ball before that score, the impact of coach Less Kiss was clear for all to see.

On Saturday night at Brisbane’s sporting cauldron, Suncorp Stadium, McReight sent the home crowd into a frenzy with a spectacular somersault finish against the Reds’ arch-rivals. McReight crossed for the score four minutes into the second half as the hosts took control.

Angus Blyth scored Queensland’s only other try after the break, as the Reds piled on the points with 28 unanswered against Dan McKellar’s Waratahs. The Tahs were the only undefeated side left in the competition before the match, but that streak came to an end convincingly 35-15.

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With that win, the Reds have emerged as the top Australian side after five rounds, sitting behind only the Chiefs and Crusaders on the standings. In coach Kiss’ second year in charge of the club based out of Ballymore, the Reds are shaping up as a real contender this season.

“It’s peak Les Kiss,” former Wallaby Nick Phipps said on Stan Sport’s Between Two Posts. “That try that McReight scored, silky hands, silky hands, they played direct for two phases then they played out the back. Everyone was running in motion off the hip.

“That was one of the best tries I’ve seen this year, team tries, I thought it was brilliant.

“That’s Kissy. He always wants people working in motion, he wants people working hard off the ball. Players swung from the far side in those two direct phases and then they made numbers off the corner and it was a really good finish.

“That’s how Kissy likes to play. A lot of his coaching style is very much up-skilling his players. He talks a lot about the way that he wants them to play and then u-skills them so they’re able to do it and I think that’s really coming through there, especially with that try.”

While the Reds won this Aussie derby comfortably in the end, the Waratahs actually landed the first blow in this round five fixture. Winger Triston Reilly crossed in the corner in the second minute, but a yellow card to Andrew Kellaway soon after was a turning point.

Heremaia Murray hit back for the Reds midway through the half, noticing the Waratahs hadn’t put someone out the back to cover Kellaway’s absence. That was the start for the Reds, with Harry Wilson and Richie Asiata both adding five-pointers before the break.

Asiata’s try was especially impressive, with the Reds marching a rolling maul about 20 metres up the field and into the in-goal. Reilly’s score earlier in the half seemed like a long time ago already, and the best of the Reds was still yet to come.

McReight’s try was a thing of beauty.

With multiple Queenslanders playing a part, the Reds’ backrower got the ball in space along the left touchline, with winger Lachie Anderson an option on the inside. But McReight decided to go alone, and ended up scoring, but it came at a cost.

McReight did leave the field moments later with a shoulder injury.

“That try was a solve as well of the way of the density in the middle of the park of the Tahs and how they were trying to jam on the edges and leave those far 15s,” Morgan Turinui added.

“The big solve that Brad Davis, attacking coach, and Les Kiss would’ve come up with is that swing play that we hadn’t seen much against the Crusaders and we hadn’t seen much in the first half.

“That’s impressive as well from a coaching and a team point of view, the ability to find a solution in the middle of the game.”