Reds miss opportunity to beat Blues

Auckland are a middle of the ladder kind of team in this era, so were beatable for the Reds when they met in Round 3 in Brisbane.

However the Reds lost the environment advantage this night, which was in their favour when the boys from the south Island of NZ (Crusaders) ran tired the week before.

[Reminds me of a humid day game in Brisbane around the early 2000's when The Crusaders were expected to fade under the Brisbane sun against the Reds. The reverse occured to such an extent that some of the Crusader player started mocking the Reds players who were literally stuffed - and Crusaders won].

The temp was cool for Brisbane in Feb in Brisbane, and the rain was torrential. Dampened the return of the Reds to Ballymore but more importantly took some of the home ground advantage away from them.

The Reds really did need to win more of their first 3 home games than 1-2 to really shift upwards in self-belief. Another day....