Queensland coach Ewen McKenzie strongly believes his deposed Reds can use their streak-ending Wellington upset to regain their mojo and climb back to Super Rugby's summit.

In their first match against a Kiwi opponent in 2011, McKenzie rued a massive "missed opportunity" when the understrength Hurricanes pipped them 28-26 on Saturday night to continue the Reds' winless woes at Westpac Stadium.

A controversial late Aaron Cruden penalty denied an eighth straight Queensland win and saw them slip to third on the competition table, three points behind the Blues (43) and two behind the Stormers (42).

The Reds need to bounce back against the Rebels in Melbourne on Friday night to keep their eight-point buffer ahead of NSW in the Australian conference, and McKenzie expected his side to "learn a lot" out of the upset.

The coach and skipper James Horwill both bemoaned a poor first-half attitude and ordinary defence which allowed the Hurricanes, who produced a 36-point blitz in the corresponding 2010 fixture, to blow them away again for a 22-5 halftime lead.

McKenzie said the Reds responded tremendously to their only other loss this season, the round two 30-6 thumping by the Waratahs, and expected a repeat with tough home matches against the Blues and Crusaders (40) looming.

"We got plenty out of our last loss ... we'll learn a lot again," he told AAP.

"And something we got out of (Saturday night) was we found out a bit more about ourselves as a group.

"We fought back and that's something we couldn't do last year (losing 44-21), but we didn't quite get there."

Among the lessons from the Wellington heart-breaker will be how to better shutout a tense win.

Quade Cooper and Luke Morahan combined for two scintillating second-half tries before Cooper kicked a 40m penalty to put the visitors in front with eight minutes to play.

But among a handful of late mistakes, Morahan dropped a swirling high ball and Cooper failed to make a sideline tackle on stand-out winger Hosea Gear to allow the home side to get out of jail.

"We should have got the job done," McKenzie said.

"There was a chain of about five things that at any point we could have done better and got the result.

"It's just a missed opportunity."

Blazing winger Morahan's double which marked him as a genuine Wallabies World Cup prospect and the spirited fightback were two positives the Reds took away, as well as no injuries.

Young Wallabies props Ben Daley (broken nose) and James Slipper (collarbone) hope to be back to play the Rebels but the scrum was solid without them.

The lineout, though, was a mess in the first half and hooker James Hanson was dragged in the 35th minute after losing five throws.

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