After 13 matches between Australian and New Zealand opposition in the Trans Tasman Super Rugby competition, the Queensland Reds finally ended Aussie teams' losing streak in their 40-34 win over the Waikato Chiefs.
While making the most of their numerical advantage following Damien McKenzie's red card, Reds' captain Liam Wright still believes his side missed a vital opportunity to vindicate their two previous losses by not powering on to a dominant win on Saturday.
The Chiefs rallied from a 30-point first-half deficit, scoring five tries, and came within a hair of snagging a highly unlikely comeback win, something Wright felt was disappointing.
"This week, we took our lessons from the last two weeks (against the Highlanders and Crusaders) and tried to apply them and we got a good start," he said.
"But that's why we found it disappointing to not capitalise and make a statement win.
"We're happy to get away with that but we would have liked to make a big statement with that performance. We let it slip."
Two matches remain for the Reds with the Australian champions all but out of finals contention, barring major slip-ups from their Tasman rivals.
A home clash against the Auckland Blues awaits next week before a difficult away trip to Wellington against the Hurricanes in the final round.
Wright says the lessons from Saturday's win need to be dealt with swiftly if they're to finish the season strong, and he hopes his side can return to Townsville for future games.
"We've got to put the right foot forward now, make the most of our recovery, take those lessons that we're going to learn again, hopefully try and apply that faster style and keep our foot on the throat."
"We really do enjoy it up here and we're trying to build a quite a good rugby base in Townsville.
"So not being up here in 14 years, it's pretty awesome... so let's do it again."
