{"id":12218,"date":"2012-07-09T00:23:17","date_gmt":"2012-07-08T22:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/07\/rugby-reds-title-defence-bogged-down-in-finals-bound-traffic\/"},"modified":"2012-07-09T00:23:17","modified_gmt":"2012-07-08T22:23:17","slug":"rugby-reds-title-defence-bogged-down-in-finals-bound-traffic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rugby-reds-title-defence-bogged-down-in-finals-bound-traffic\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby-Reds’ title defence bogged down in finals-bound traffic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Ian Ransom<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

MELBOURNE, July 8<\/span> (Reuters) – The Queensland Reds’
\nstuttering start to the season and inadequate try-scoring
\nappears set to deny last year’s champions a chance to defend
\ntheir Super Rugby title in the post-season finals series.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Ewen McKenzie-coached Reds survived a huge scare against
\nthe Highlanders at Lang Park on Friday to notch their fifth
\nstraight win but head into the final round of the southern
\nhemisphere provincial championship’s regular season with their
\ndestiny in other teams’ hands.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Reds lie seventh on the ladder on 53 points, one point
\nout of the top six that will contest the finals, and praying
\nthat at least one out of the four vulnerable teams above them
\nslip up against the competition’s cellar-dwellers.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Reds should have little trouble beating the hapless New
\nSouth Wales Waratahs in their last match at Lang Park, but will
\nhope one of the Brumbies (58 points), Crusaders (56), Bulls (54)
\nor Sharks (54) are upset in the final round.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

None of the four appears likely to be.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The third-placed Brumbies need only a single point from
\ntheir home game against the insipid Blues at Canberra Stadium to
\nseal their playoffs berth as winners of the Australian
\nconference.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

A loss by less than eight points to the Blues would secure a
\nbonus point and be enough for them to qualify and deny the Reds
\nany hope of stealing top spot in the conference.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Crusaders, in fourth spot, are also in the box seat as
\nthey head home to Christchurch to play the 14th-placed Western
\nForce.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ian Ransom MELBOURNE, July 8 (Reuters) – The Queensland Reds’ stuttering start to the season and inadequate try-scoring appears set to deny last year’s champions a chance to defend their Super Rugby title in the post-season finals series. The Ewen McKenzie-coached Reds survived a huge scare against the Highlanders at Lang Park on Friday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-12218","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12218\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}