Reds rally around errant O'Connor
The Reds have rallied around troubled utility back James O'Connor, despite his consequential in the team's deflating 14-21 loss to the Sharks on Friday.
Both coach Richard Graham and captain James Slipper refused to heap blame on O'Connor, whose monumental blunder with just over 10 minutes to go effectively gifted victory to the Sharks in a tight game.
Until that moment, the Reds appeared to have all the momentum – having had to come back from 0-10 down inside the first quarter and then from trailing 7-16 at half-time.
All Black Adam Thomson was seen berating the errant backline star as the players left the field at half-time, with veteran scrumhalf Will Genia forced to step in.
Yet, the Reds produced a united front to the media in their post-match reaction.
Graham said O'Connor would bounce back from his match-turning blunder, which allowed the Sharks to snap a six-game losing streak.
"It's hard to point the finger at one person," the coach said.
"After that, I thought even our effort to try and salvage something out of it was excellent.
"But that's an individual error, if you look across the game there was plenty of those."
Captain James Slipper said the team would "rally around" O'Connor, who has battled injury through an inconsistent debut season with Queensland – but has occasionally showed flashes of match-winning brilliance.
"It's a team sport," Slipper said.
"You never like seeing individuals take a blow like that.
"It's obviously not what we wanted but we're going to have to rally around him."
The loss to the Sharks came just seven days after the Reds seemingly turned their season around with a thumping win over the Rebels.
"It's almost like the efforts from last week were compromised, negated by not getting the result and not backing that up," Graham said.
"We probably stood back and watched the game a little bit tonight."
Graham said he was disappointed the team couldn't build on the momentum from last week's win over the Rebels.
"We are very disappointed," he said, adding: "I feel that's a game we lost, a game we realistically should have won given the amount of possession and some of the opportunities we created.
"We got sucked into playing their game. I'm disappointed we allowed the game to be slowed down and played the way they wanted. I give them a lot of credit for how disciplined they were in the way they wanted to play.
"A week after controlling the contact area so well, tonight we stood back and watched our ball carrier carry in isolation far too much. That area alone was a massive contributor to the 13 turnovers in the first half.
"Our kicking was another area that let us down. We got into a cycle where they pinned us in a corner and we couldn't really escape it."
