A soft first-half effort and a controversial last-minute penalty had Queensland fuming as the Reds conceded Super Rugby's pole position with a 28-26 upset loss at their Wellington graveyard on Saturday night.

The under-achieving Hurricanes suddenly clicked into gear at Westpac Stadium to surprise the in-form pacesetters and end the Reds' record seven-match winning streak.

Despite missing four All Black backs, the home side produced a stunning four-try first half, including three in a nine-minute blitz for a 22-5 lead at the break.

Queensland playmaker Quade Cooper laid on two scintillating second-half tries to blazing winger Luke Morahan to have the visitors surge back and lead 26-25 in the last eight minutes.

But, ironically, both Cooper and Morahan were guilty of pressured errors to open the door for the Hurricanes before prop Guy Shepherdson was ruled off-side in defence in the last play of the game.

After kicking just two from seven all night, fringe All Blacks five-eighth Aaron Cruden capped a brilliant playmaking display by slotting the 35m penalty to deny the Reds a first-ever win at the Cake Tin.

Coach Ewen McKenzie had plenty to be frustrated about and also questioned the call against Shepherdson by referee Keith Brown.

"He was running back to the goal-line, he wasn't running forward," McKenzie told AAP.

While McKenzie rued a failure to close out the game, Queensland's poor first-half defence and shoddy lineout work were to blame for their second loss of the season.

After showing immense character to keep their line intact against the NSW Waratahs last week, the Reds' tackling tenacity went missing for `Canes skipper Andrew Hore to celebrate a "special win" in his 100th Super match.

Also smashed at the breakdown, Queensland were completely blown away by the frenetic attack of an unheralded backline missing Test quartet Ma'a Nonu, Conrad Smith, Cory Jane and Piri Weepu.

"You can't lose five lineouts - they just had too much ball (in the first half)," McKenzie said. "We didn't tackle low enough and tackled high and they bent the line.

"We did everything we don't normally do and we allowed them to get out (to a 17-point lead) and all I can say is we did well to get back into it.

"We all wanted to be ball-runners and not do the hard work - these games are defined by rolling up your sleeves.

"That stuff has been our trademark and it wasn't there. I suppose that's the most frustrating thing."

Skipper James Horwill also lambasted the early effort after an outstanding team try in the second minute to No.8 Scott Higginbotham.

"We came out and did exactly what we wanted to do in the first couple of minutes and then went to sleep and you can't do that against a good Hurricanes side, they like to play with the ball and they did that.

"We know they're a good side ... and we didn't dictate terms like we needed to and we just didn't show up."

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