The Queensland Reds’ season ended in Hamilton on Saturday night when the Chiefs beat them 46-24 in their Super Rugby Pacific qualifying final, and the result also closed the book on Les Kiss’s time in charge. Damian McKenzie’s second-half double helped the home side pull clear after the Reds had briefly pushed into the contest.
Fraser McReight was at the center of the Reds’ best moments. His turnovers created one try for Matt Faessler and helped set up Aidan Ross against his former club, while Lukhan Salakaia-Loto opened the scoring for Queensland. For a spell, the Reds had the kind of edge they had needed all year, and McReight later said, “We put in a great shift there and went into half-time full of confidence. They were probably able to execute a lot better than we were … we did throw everything into it, and the fight from our group all year has been outstanding.”
That effort was not enough to change a brutal pattern. The Reds have now lost four straight qualifying finals, and they became the latest Australian side to leave New Zealand empty-handed in a Super Rugby Pacific final, a drought that has never been broken on New Zealand soil. The Chiefs were sharper when the match tightened, with Samisoni Taukei'aho scoring from a rolling maul after Salakaia-Loto was shown a yellow card, Kyren Taumoefolau adding two tries and Isaac Hutchinson finishing the scoring late.
For Kiss, the defeat means a swift handover now turns into a closing act. Joe Schmidt is due to vacate the Wallabies job in July, and Kiss will move straight into Test preparation and selection work for the final three Tests. He was already expected to be heavily involved in those discussions back in May, but the Hamilton result ended any chance of him finishing his Reds tenure with a deeper finals run.
