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Watch: Reds lock Ryan Smith takes surprise shot at goal in statement win

Ryan Smith of the Reds looks on during the round seven Super Rugby Pacific match between Queensland Reds and Western Force at Suncorp Stadium, on March 29, 2025, in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

It’s not often you see a second-rower line up a shot at goal, but Ryan Smith was given that rare honour on Saturday as the Queensland Reds celebrated a memorable 52-7 win over the Fijian Drua, in what was also the lock’s last Super Rugby Pacific match in Brisbane.

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Backrower Joe Brial helped the Reds reach a half-century of points with a try in the 79th minute, which set the stage for Smith’s fitting farewell. Smith was handed the goal-kicking tee, and initially gave it back, before stepping up to take the shot from right in front.

With a group of Reds players watching on, and the Drua standing in a circle within the in-goal area, Smith sent the ball through the uprights and into the crowd. Stan Sport commentator Sean Maloney was initially caught off-guard when realising who’d taken the conversion.

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Smith is set to join Ospreys ahead of the 2025/26 URC season, with that transfer announced by the Welsh club in late April. While it’s a big loss for Australian rugby, with Smith included in a Wallabies training squad in 2024, Smith’s last Super Rugby home game couldn’t have gone any better.

“The boys threw it to me and I said no initially and gave the tee back and they insisted,” Smith told James Horwill on Stan Sport

“I honestly nearly missed. I nearly didn’t have the legs for it.

“That’s something new for me.”

With the Blues beating the NSW Waratahs, and the Hurricanes recording an emphatic win over Moana Pasifika earlier on Saturday, the Reds’ fate was already sealed ahead of the match against the Drua at Suncorp Stadium.

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The Reds will visit Christchurch next week, seeking an upset win over the Crusaders, who are coming off a valiant win over the Brumbies in Canberra. Queensland finished fifth overall, but remain in the race for the top prize.

After losing to the Drua only a few weeks earlier in Fiji, the Reds looked to end their round-robin on a positive note with a statement result. That’s exactly what they achieved, claiming an emphatic 45-point win, with Lahie Anderson crossing for a four-try haul.

Anderson opened the scoring in the 11th minute, completing a hat-trick only 10 minutes later before Josh Canham got on the scoreboard. Queensland would take a 33-nil lead into the half-time break, although the second term was much closer.

Haereiti Hetet scored the Drua’s first and only try of the evening just after the interval, before the Reds regained control with Josh Flook, Filipo Daugunu and Brial scoring second-half tries. It was a classy performance from the Reds, who finished the season with an 8-6 record.

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“We really talked about backing ourselves,” Smith reflected.

“We had a big focus, obviously we’re going into finals from here but we had a real focus that this week is the only thing we have to pay for.

“To come out and keep the foot on the throat there and score some nice tries against a really tough Drua team, we’re really happy with that.

“We focused really on this game, it’s a massive one for us. Obviously, we lost the game against these guys earlier in the year so we really wanted to get the win here tonight.

“I’m really proud of the boys for stepping up there, a full 80-minute performance.”

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RedWarriors 3 hours ago
'Not a normal rugby team' - The Leinster flex that floored Jake White

I was actually at the match. Leinster were the outstanding team in the league stage. Leinster’s squad depth meant the Bulls could only nick a late win in Pretoria against an understrenght Leinster. Simple put, Leinster are significantly better this year compared to last. The Dublin match last year was a big win by Leinster. Yes they won by a point in the RDS three years ago but thats not relevant to yesterday.

As Leinster are such a dangerous team, it forces an opponent to focus on a strategy to undermine them and that way get their game on the pitch. Leinster allowed that against Northampton. But that was not going to happen again. The Bulls attack in last 10 minutes of the first half was as savage as anything in the URC this year. Yet Leinsters coaching plan repelled them allied to savage commitment from the players. The defense was outstanding, pressure at breakdown outstanding. Leinster did not win the European cup but arguably at their best this year no other European team could reach that height. They reached that yesterday. Leinster completely removed Bulls ability to hurt them.

And Croke Park….100 years ago the Brits fired machine guns into spectators injuring 100s and killing loads. No Irish team ever performs badly there. Same with Irish supporters. Opposition players might as well be Brit Tommies with machine guns.

I think a great Leinster team, played a great game plan, to the height of their power in a horrible stadium for opponents. If Bulls score before half time they were back in the match. They went down, but they went down fighting.

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