James Horwill satisfied with team’s defense in semi-final win over Blues – Super Rugby
Queensland Reds’ captain, James Horwill, has praised his team’s efforts and credited the Super Rugby semi-final victory over the Blues to their defense. Reds defeated Blues 30 – 13 in the 2011 Super Rugby semi-final clash at Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane on
Saturday, July 2.
The Reds captain and hooker was talking to reporters at the end of the match when he expressed his satisfaction over his team’s performance in their must-win game against the Blues.
Horwill was of the opinion that last week’s bye probably helped the team better prepare for the highly anticipated game. He said, “We knew our conditioning was good for this game and the week off probably proved beneficial.”
Horwill has also praised the point scoring duo of Reds’ winger Rod Davies and fly half Quade Cooper. Davies scored a hat-trick of tries while Cooper bagged 10 points in the match to become the leading point scorer in the Super XV.
Horwill was very pleased with the efforts of the forwards and half back, that put them in the lead at the end of the first-half. Reds led the game at half-time with scorecard reading 15 – 7 in favour of Reds. However, he added, “the pressure added by the
defense has created the scoring opportunities.”
When asked about the team’s effort in the second-half of the game in which they scored 15 points and conceded only six points, Horwill replied that the team did well to hold on to the Blues early surge in the second-half and later denied the opposition any
scoring opportunity.
Horwill said, “We just had to back our defense and that is where we got points in the first half through the pressure that our defense in was putting on. We went back to that in the second half and came away with some good points.”
When asked about the team’s preparations for their final game, Horwill replied that his team will work out their set pieces as they made a few mistakes in Saturday’s semi-final. He further added, “It (reaching super rugby final) is a reward for the great
effort the boys had put in, We have one more game to go, but we are really please with the effort (in semifinal)."
James Horwill has also expressed his excitement at playing a home final and appearing in the Super Rugby title match after a lapse of 16 years.
Tags: