Reds captain Will Genia said last Friday's come-from-behind 23-18 victory over the Chiefs in New Zealand was "the best win he's been involved in" with the Reds and he now wants to back that up with a win against Aussie rivals the Western Force at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday.
The scrumhalf and stand-in skipper while James Horwill is out injured said the spirit and determination the Reds showed to come back from three tries down raised the win above other landmark victories he has been involved with, such as the 40-8 victory against current Super Rugby champions the Bulls in 2008, just a year after losing to the same team by a record 92-3.
"It's definitely the best win I've been involved in with this Queensland side," Genia told reporters at Ballymore.
"We've beaten a few of the top sides by 40 odd points, but we've never won those tight contests. To come from behind and show a lot of character as we did… it was definitely a great win.
"We've now shown that we can do it, we can close out games, and come from behind to hold out a good side.
"We just spoke about wanting to play for 80 minutes and having that mongrel and that attitude right through the game. That's something we definitely showed on the weekend."
A win over the Force would give the Reds their first back-to-back victory since 2006, although Genia said the team won't be approaching it in exactly those terms after failing to break the cycle against the Blues in round three.
"Our big thing is we just want to improve. It's not so much about looking at the end result, it's about the processes. We have been competitive in all our games so far and we want to be competitive this week."
Genia suspects the squad fell into the trap of overconfidence following big wins in the past, but is adamant that won't be the case with the Force, who have caused the Reds plenty of headaches since they joined the competition in 2006 and who spanked them in a pre-season trial in Perth.
With the Reds heading for a bye and then a three game tour of South Africa following their match with the Force, Genia encouraged supporters to take this opportunity to get along to Suncorp Stadium to throw their support behind the Reds on Sunday.
"Repaying the faith of the fans is something (head coach Ewen McKenzie) is really big on and something he has really instilled amongst the group. We know we have a lot of diehard fans that have stuck by us in tough times, so hopefully they can turn out on Sunday and we put in a good performance so they keep coming."
Reds fans hoping that fullback Peter Hynes (finger) and wing Digby Ioane (knee) will be cleared to play against the Force will have to wait a bit longer. While both should be fit for the trip to South Africa in a fortnight, Head Coach Ewen McKenzie wants to see how they train this week before making a call on their availability for the Force match.
"We've got a long season ahead so we don't want to rush things. I want to see how they train first before I make a decision," McKenzie said.
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