McKellar rues soft moments as Reds end Waratahs perfect start

New South Wales Waratahs coach Dan McKellar was frustrated by his sides performance in Saturdays 35-15 defeat by the Queensland Reds which ended their unbeaten start to the Super Rugby Pacific season.

The Waratahs had won their first three matches of the campaign and started well at Brisbanes Lang Park, taking an early lead through winger Triston Reilly.

However, momentum swung decisively in the Reds favour following a 23rd minute yellow card for Waratahs fullback Andrew Kellaway.

We didnt capitalise on early opportunities, said McKellar, who took over at the Waratahs ahead of the new season.

The first 20 minutes I thought we executed on what we trained on all week really well, but we didnt take advantage of it.

And then, the yellow card, we fell off a cliff, and just some really soft moments and not good enough. Its as simple as that.

McKellar was particularly annoyed by the try that allowed the Reds to go into the half-time break with a 21-8 advantage.

A maul formed more than 20 metres from the Waratahs line before driving home almost unopposed to allow Richie Asiata to touch down.

That maul try was borderline embarrassing for all involved, said McKellar.

We were pretty positive at half-time around if we just executed what we discussed and what we trained, then we felt we could get right back into the game.

But again, just a couple of soft moments, and if you give the Reds soft moments, theyll take advantage of it, especially at home.

Weve got full confidence in the group that came here, trained really well, prepared well all week, and did some good things within patches. But patches dont beat quality teams. REUTERS

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