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The Queensland Reds will be bidding to become the first Australian Super Rugby side to score successive wins over Kiwi opposition.
Brad Thorn is demanding the Queensland Reds resolve their defensive shortfalls as they chase rare back-to-back Super Rugby wins over New Zealand opposition.
The Reds host the Blues on Friday night at Suncorp Stadium bidding to become the first Australian team to score successive wins over Kiwi rivals in six years.
Not since the Rebels beat the Chiefs 16-15 in round 12 at AAMI Park in 2015, then thrashed the Blues 44-22 also in Melbourne the following week has any side achieved the feat.
The Reds haven't managed it since 2013, when they took down the Chiefs 31-23 at Waikato Stadium in round nine, then edged the Blues 12-11 in Brisbane two weeks later.
Thorn's men have the chance to repeat the effort against the same two teams after downing the Chiefs last Saturday to finally break Australia's 2021 Trans-Tasman duck.
But to have any hope of doing so, and upsetting the table-topping Blues, Thorn knows the Reds must stop leaking points, having conceded an alarming 137 in the first three rounds.
Even in beating the Chiefs, the Reds conceded 34 points at home at the weekend, prompting Thorn to make the shock call to dump Wallaby-in-waiting back-rowers Fraser McReight and Seru Uru.
The no-nonsense coach has shown in the past he's willing to make big selection calls in pursuit of success - just ask Quade Cooper, Karmichael Hunt and James Slipper.
Thorn is making no apologies, saying the Reds have been exposed defensively far too often during the tournament.
"Forty points (conceded) against the Highlanders, 60 against the Crusaders," the former All Black said on Thursday.
"If you look at all the Australian sides who have played the Kiwis over the last few weeks the big thing has been there's been points in teams, there's points in us - we scored 28 points against the Crusaders and had three over the tryline that we didn't get down.
"It's not the attacking side of the game. It's the other side of the game where Australian teams are getting challenged. We've been the same.
"We're up against high-quality attacking side who can hurt you if you give them the opportunity.
"That last defensive side of the game, that last 15-20 minutes, that was disappointing. Credit to the Chiefs they came back well."
Thorn said it wasn't the end of the world for young players like McReight and Uru to "have a break".
"Seru, I've been trying to challenge him around his physicality," he said.
"He is an outstanding football player but there's the physical side of the football game as well - it's not touch football.
"If he gets that physical side of the game, he can be a great player cause he has all that other stuff."
Friday night's other game pits the winless Western Force against the unbeaten second-placed Crusaders in Christchurch.
