Belief is back at Reds, declares Genia
Queensland skipper Will Genia has promised the resurgent Reds have learnt from past mistakes and will maintain their new-found ruthless streak for Super 14 success.
Genia rated the Reds' self-belief the highest he'd encountered in four seasons at Ballymore following their 23-18 upset of the Chiefs but stressed over-confidence would not be a recurring problem in Sunday's clash with the Western Force.
The Force are winless and injury-riddled but Queensland's inability to back up good performances and win as favourites have been hallmarks of their past six years of failure.
A victory in the Australian derby at Suncorp Stadium would break a drought stretching back to 2006 since the Reds have won successive matches.
Genia won't talk of back-to-back success after tripping up against the Blues, following their round two boilover against the Crusaders, and last year's implosion once they upset the unbeaten Sharks.
But the in-form Wallabies halfback predicted a huge flow-on effect from a victory he labelled the best in his time with the Reds.
"To come back from behind and show a lot of character as we did was definitely a great win and it sets us up for the season in terms of attitude and knowing what we can achieve," he said on Monday.
"(Self-belief) is a massive thing for us. We've shown we can do it and we can close out games, particularly coming from behind and holding out a good side.
"We've learnt twice in two years about that mistake (of being overconfident) so we'll be better for it this weekend."
Failing to play out the entire 80 minutes and closing out tight matches has been another major failing, highlighted by the 30-28 season-opening capitulation to NSW.
"We've usually got to the 60-minute mark and tend to lose game as shown in the first week against the Waratahs," Genia said.
"We spoke about playing for 80 minutes and having that mongrel and attitude for the whole game."
The Reds are expected to have winger Digby Ioane (knee) fit to play his old side while fullback Peter Hynes (finger) is rated a 50-50 chance.
But coach Ewen McKenzie admitted he may consider giving Ioane an extra week off with a round six bye to follow.
If both return, teenager Luke Morahan would have the strongest claims to keep his starting berth ahead of Will Chambers and Brando Va'aulu after a scintillating display in Hamilton where his sheer pace reaped the match-winning try.
"We knew he was quick but not that much quicker than (Lelia) Masaga, he absolutely smoked him to the ball," Genia said.
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