The Queensland Reds have gone down 42-19 tonight in a disappointing display against the Western Force at Suncorp Stadium.
The Reds led 12-7 through the 30-minute mark but were punished for their error rate as the match slipped away in the second half of the Swyftx Super Rugby Pacific match.
Centre Josh Flook and replacement flyhalf Harry McLaughlin-Phillips were two players who stood out for the Reds.
"It's tough. I'm feeling flat. We were off tonight," Reds captain Fraser McReight said after the match.
"At times, we were not clinical or accurate enough. Our discipline let us down and, at times, we were not up to scratch with our physicality.
"We'll come back in at the start of next week, we'll figure out what went wrong and get back into it
"There's definitely no lack of faith. The squad is in a good spot...we just need to restart the engine."
The Reds will regroup to face the Crusaders at Suncorp Stadium next Saturday night in one of the biggest games of the season.
The Reds found themselves down 7-0 early before responding with a beautifully worked set play off a lineout win to level at 7-all on 15 minutes.
Replacement Tim Ryan, coming in off the blind wing, sliced over off a neat ball from centre Hunter Paisami.
The position on the field was set-up by a strong scrum earning a penalty kick to touch.
Another strong scrum at the 23-minute mark enabled halfback Kalani Thomas to take a quick tap which he used to feed flanker Joe Brial for the try and 12-7.
Force lock Franco Molina scored the second of his three tries for the night just after the half hour mark. A long-range team try on half-time to former Reds fullback Mac Grealy gave the Force their 21-12 half-time lead.
When centre Hunter Paisami made a break straight after the break, it looked like a spark had been found.
Unfortunately, the Force did the pressing and got to 35-12 before Flook got in the clear and fed winger Filipo Daugunu for a try with five minutes to play.
Only one try was conceded during a yellow card period for No.8 Harry Wilson midway through the second half.
Winger Treyvon Pritchard, 19 today, was replaced after just nine minutes after a head knock sustained when making a key tackle to stall a Force attack.
Head Coach Les Kiss said the Reds would regroup this week.
"Credit to the Force. They held the ball well and they punished our error rate," Kiss said.
"We'll assess that game as hard as we always do. It's not a throwaway line... we find out about ourselves in moments like this and we will go hard at our next challenge against the Crusaders."
WESTERN FORCE 42
Tries: Franco Molina 3, Mac Grealy, Darby Lancaster, Brandon Paenga-Amosa
Conversions: Ben Donaldson 6
Def
QUEENSLAND REDS 19
Tries: Tim Ryan, Joe Brial, Filipo Daugunu
Conversions: Jock Campbell 2
Half-time: Force 21-Reds 12
Venue: Suncorp Stadium
