KEY POINTS:
Having sat through the dross that was the Chiefs' narrow win over the bottom-placed Reds their coach, Ian Foster, found two things to savour.
"Stephen Donald's last kick at goal [which won the match] and the final hooter," he said yesterday.
You've got to admire someone who can retain a sense of humour after sitting through 80 largely forgettable minutes at Suncorp Stadium. But had Donald missed his 36m penalty four minutes from the end, that humour would have been sorely tested.
The Reds are rock bottom for a reason and it was apparent on Saturday night. They had little to offer except pride.
And yet they could have taken the points had replacement prop Ernest Skelton - recipient of a 10-year ban from rugby league for flattening a touch judge eight years ago - not given up a dopey penalty at a ruck, handing the Chiefs an escape route.
The Blues visit Hamilton this Saturday. The Chiefs have a big week ahead and Foster acknowledged that it was a good thing they weren't up against the Super 14 leaders on Saturday.
This was the definition of winning ugly and there's only one course of action as far as the Chiefs are concerned: take the points, move on and don't look back.
"We've played well this year and lost, so we were owed a bit of luck," Foster said. "We made a lot of mistakes, as did the Reds. The breakdown was a shambles and there was no flow."
Referee Willie Roos did not help with curious handling at scrum time, an area the Chiefs had hoped to exploit, but Reds loosehead prop Herman Hunt was allowed to repeatedly fold to the ground.
Some of the skills on display were dreadful. More than 30 tackles were missed and finding positives out of all that was not easy.
Here's one: Byron Kelleher. The returning, reconditioned All Black halfback was a strong, resourceful figure, bristling with aggression, running hard and putting himself about defensively.
But fellow All Black, wing Sitiveni Sivivatu, didn't touch the ball until the 25th minute. He was involved in a lazy bit of play with Sione Lauaki which could have proved costly, but did make one try-saving tackle, cutting down the outstanding Andrew Walker as he charged down the touchline towards the lefthand corner.
Walker was one of the few bright sparks for the Reds. He provided a booming boot and strong counter-attacking and if he was playing in a half-decent team it could have been a match-winning performance.
You had to feel for honest toilers like captain and No 8 John Roe, robbed of the ball as he charged for the Chiefs line and flanker David Croft, who scored the Reds' only try from a clever inpass by Tokoroa-raised first five-eighth Quade Cooper , shrugging off an ineffective Lauaki tackle on his angled run to the line.
Of all the Reds, Cooper caught the eye more than anyone, and that's no compliment. He gave possibly the most bizarre individual display in the competition so far.
At one point, as the ball flew towards him, he turned away looking for someone to pass to, with the predictable result. Once, he was in mid-air attempting a Benji Marshall double twist, hip-swivel, kangaroo hop before he'd caught the ball, which bounced off his hip. It was as if someone was running behind him with a cattle prod, dishing out the occasional jab.
The Chiefs defended resolutely. Kristian Ormsby's two tries were a reward for powerful work close to the Reds line, although had he not scored the second, after dummying and ignoring a line of teammates outside him, they might have left him in Brisbane.
Now for the Blues.
Foster said: "We're up against a team who are very confident and playing extremely good rugby. They've banked away enough points to feel comfortable." The Chiefs have some way to go on that score.
