Queensland Reds win wild shootout in 'unusual circumstances'

After drawing the short straw of a round one bye, the Queensland Reds converted the toil of a long pre-season into a rollicking 56-36 win over Moana Pasifika in the Brisbane wet on Friday night.

Super Rugby Pacific has been a tough watch for defence coaches so far this season and attack again well and truly prevailed at Suncorp Stadium as the Reds alone ran in eight tries.

All eight were converted - seven by Tom Lynagh - while outstanding flanker Fraser McReight had a field day on both sides of the ball.

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Discipline, as well as tackling, will be a work on for the Reds, who lost three players to yellow cards in the first half.

To their credit, Moana kept firing shots and electric winger Kyren Taumoefolau nabbed a second-half double to at one stage give the visitors a sniff.

But the Reds kept counter punching when needed to leave coach Les Kiss a satisfied man at full-time.

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Their 21-0 burst in the first 13 minutes proved decisive.

"We did what we wanted to to start the game," Kiss told Stan Sport.

"We really put a stamp on it. Then you take the yellows into account, under all that pressure, so at halftime, I was pretty happy to tell you the truth, in terms of the resilience...

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"I think we can take a lot from that. Unusual circumstances, we got refereed pretty hard, you know, right or wrong, it doesn't matter.

"We were just refereed that way, and we had to stand up, we could have collapsed easily, but we didn't. I was pretty happy. I thought some of the tries we scored were pretty special."

McReight, Hunter Paisami and Ryan Smith were all binned by New Zealand whistle blower Paul Williams.

The Reds are 1-0 while Moana are 0-2.

"It did have a bit of everything," McReight told Stan Sport.

"It's the first game, it was hot and wet, we were always going to be a bit rusty, but I was really proud that we got a bonus point win in the end."

Queensland will next travel to Perth to play the Western Force in round three while Moana will host the Highlanders in Auckland.

"Obviously so happy with that win there, it was a fast game of footy," No.8 Harry Wilson told Stan Sport.

"The speed's right up and brings fatigue into the game, probably why we saw so many points scored. Our tight five worked hard for us in that first half and we saw the benefits in the second 40 there."

Reds 56 (Tries: Uru, Daugunu, Ryan, Faessler, Blyth, Smith, McReight, McLaughlin-Phillips; Cons: Lynagh 7, McLaughlin-Phillips) def Moana Pasifika 36 (Tries: Savea, Aiaimalo, Taumoefolau 2, Craig; Cons: Havili 4)