Angry Queensland Reds coach Nick Stiles says he will blood young players for the rest of the Super Rugby season after their feint finals hopes were extinguished by the Western Force.
Stiles could barely contain his fury after Friday night's rollercoaster 40-26 defeat at Suncorp Stadium, which has all but ended any chance the Reds had of topping the Australian conference.
Two tries from Stephen Moore put the Reds 26-23 in front with 20 minutes to go.
But just as they did in the first half after opening the scoring with the game's first try, they dropped their bundle, allowing the Force to sail home with 17 unanswered points.
"I'm filthy, simple as that," Stiles said.
"We can't sustain 80 minutes of football.
"We scored the first try and then we just go into a mode of 'the game's over', and taking soft options after that.
"We ended up getting the lead (back) and then we feel content and go into our shells again."
Stiles also slammed winger Eto Nabuli as "stupid" for the high shot that led to the team's second yellow card of the night.
Nick Frisby copped the other in the 44th minute, meaning the Reds played half the second stanza with 14 men.
The Reds travel to Samoa to face the Blues next week before closing out the season against the Brumbies at home and the Highlanders away after Super Rugby's international break.
With nothing left to play for, Stiles said he would play the kids.
"We've got some young guys coming through that we will use in the last three games to push them through, give them more minutes and chase victories," he said.
"(Maybe that will) get the group hungry ... because we're not there at the moment."
Stand-in Reds skipper Samu Kerevi was equally harsh, admitting he was "disgusted" with his own display and said the players had to take all the responsibility for their mounting losses.
"The coaches are putting in great plans for the game and we're just not following it at times," he said.
"That performance, it's got nothing to do with coaches or messages at the back end or whatever it is. It's us when we get out there.
"We can train as well as we can and say the right words but when we get out on the paddock, we've got to put in the 80-minute performance that we speak about all the time. Tonight wasn't good enough."
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