A new season, a new coach, but yet another gut-wrenching defeat out of the jaws of victory.

It seems the more things change, the more they stay the same with the brave but hapless Queensland Reds.

Saturday night's 30-28 Super 14 first round loss to arch-enemies NSW stung like few others after the Reds capitulated in the final 10 minutes after leading 28-18 at Suncorp Stadium.

Skipper James Horwill, a stand-out in the back-row along with halfback Will Genia, rated it one of the toughest losses in his career.

Instead of Queensland christening the Ewen McKenzie era with a drought-breaking Templeton Cup triumph, they are under immediate pressure to rebound against the star-studded Crusaders on Friday night at home.

The prospect of a second-round upset in a short preparation week has already taken a hit with veteran hooker Sean Hardman extremely doubtful of playing due to an ankle injury.

The Reds sorely missed Hardman's 138 caps worth of experience in the second half as their set-piece play disintegrated late with Saia Faingaa struggling to fill the void.

It was a NSW tight-head scrum win on halfway and a stolen lineout on the Reds line which sparked the Waratahs' great escape after Queensland scored the only three tries of the first 70 minutes.

"It doesn't look too good (for Hardman)," McKenzie said. "He played 20 minutes with it in a courageous effort by him, he did a great job, but he struggled to walk.

"I don't think he'll play next week."

McKenzie didn't just rue the lack of composure and execution under pressure in the final 10 minutes but two wasted "relatively easy" try-scoring chances in the second half.

"I think we moved ourselves around the park, we had more energy, we played more footy, we did more, and I thought we had the Waratahs on the edge the whole time," he said.

"(But) I'm not going to slap them on the back. We had the game there and we let it go. We're not going to be rewarding that.

"The character they showed should be there every week. We want to make that a hallmark of the team.

"The reward is in getting the detail right which we didn't do at critical times."

The Dan Carter-piloted Crusaders are coming off their own bruising local derby, but with the confidence of a 32-17 win over South Island neighbours the Highlanders.

Horwill rates the Cantabrians the best provincial side in the world but the Reds ability to trouble NSW has also boosted his confidence.

"We believe we're good enough to win the competition after (Saturday night)," he said. "We need to be better than we were tonight, we need to be better and smarter.

"We're on the way but we're not there yet. We need to keep working hard to do the little things right and the little things will turn into big reward if we do."

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