Reds slump to 59-16 Super 14 loss
Furious coach Eddie Jones has accused Queensland of giving up after being "physically molested" in an Easter Saturday massacre to fall to their second worst loss in Super rugby.
Reds fans filed out of Suncorp Stadium well before full-time as the Sharks ran in six second-half tries to break a host of records with a 59-16 thumping to consign the home side to their eighth straight defeat.
Jones gave it to his tentative troops in a profanity-laced post-match dressing room tirade where he blasted them for switching off against the red-hot South Africans.
He said the 14,443 patrons deserved their money back as he failed to find a single positive in the cakewalk.
"We're the worst team in the competition, we deserve to be where we are and we're not going to get better until we change our attitude," he said.
"The supporters that walked out today I wouldn't expect to see them back.
"We should be giving their money back.
"We let everyone down today."
Queensland started atrociously, grabbed a lucky lead and pressured with some enterprising attack but finished as they started to fall to their biggest defeat in 10 years.
Not since the Crusaders thumped the Reds 48-3 in Christchurch in 1997 have they suffered a worse defeat. Only once before have they conceded more points, 62 to the Blues in 2003.
It was easily their worst against South African opponents, eclipsing the 20-point loss to the Bulls in 2003.
The Reds now approach their biggest clash of the season - next Saturday night's grudge match with NSW at Aussie Stadium - sapped of any confidence.
They threw passes to decoy runners, gave up a tight-head, missed one-on-one tackles, took an array of poor options and failed to find touch at crucial times.
Jones attributed the last-placed Reds' problems to "attitudinal issues".
"They're long-term issues," he said. "This is a team that's been used to losing, and sure we'll get up for NSW, but big deal, it's about having a real desire to want to get better."
Springbok lock AJ Venter showed the match meant far more to the third-placed Sharks by sprinting in from 10m to illegally shoulder charge Reds wildcard Andrew Walker in a ruck.
The battering was missed by referee Chris Pollock and forced Walker (ribs) off the field with the game in the balance at 17-10 at halftime.
"They physically molested us tonight," Jones said.
The Durban-based outfit consolidated third place on the table with the victory, the biggest in their 12-season history.
Slippery winger JP Pietersen crossed for a double, as did Venter, as the Sharks scored the most tries for a travelling South African team in a match.
The tone was set early when the Reds started dreadfully with a comedy of errors gifting the Sharks a 7-0 lead in the fourth minute.
Peter Hynes threw an inexplicable forward pass to decoy runner Hugh McMeniman before league convert Clinton Schifcofske, showing a haziness about rugby's laws, took the Sharks' kick into the in-goal and had a belated clearance smothered.
The mistakes continued, but amazingly Queensland grabbed a 10-7 lead when a flat Quade Cooper pass hit storming No.8 John Roe who fooled Ruan Pienaar with a superb in and away.
The turning point came in the 37th minute when lock James Horwill conceded a holding the ball penalty in the Sharks quarter after a string of dangerous phases. One play later Jacques Botes scored for a 17-10 halftime lead.
The floodgates opened in the second half as the Queenslanders fell off tackles to concede six tries.
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