The Queensland Reds have wrapped up the Japan leg of their tour in style, prevailing in a loose, but high-scoring and entertaining affair against Robbie Deans’ Panasonic Wild Knights. Despite a second-half fightback that threatened to see the Japanese powerhouse snatch it at the death, Les Kiss’ men recovered well to win 42-28 – with the backline weapons proving the best finds on a beautiful afternoon at Kumagaya Rugby Stadium. The visitors opened the score early, with two tries inside the opening seven minutes – including one to GPS’ and new Red speedster Floyd Aubrey.
It took twenty minutes for the hosts to get into the match, but Tatsuhiro Tanji finally got them on the board in the 22nd minute, after not being held by the Reds’ defence. The Reds regathered momentum off the set piece and a strong scrum, with Kalani Thomas enjoying a strong performance at half-back, delivering several pin-point kicks off the ruck. Favourable field position and pressure resulted in Aubrey going over for his second to take the margin back to two converted tries – however some sloppy work off the ball from the restart saw the Knights’ Jack Cornelsen capitalise almost immediately to bring the margin back to seven within two minutes.
The Reds restarted and eventually picked up a penalty goal, going into halftime 24-14 ahead. More Rugby Maintaining the momentum in the second half, a perfectly weighted Thomas kick saw Aubrey pick up his third try under the posts – although replays.