Queensland fly-half Quade Cooper played well but made several kicking errors © Getty Images

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Matches: Queensland Reds 33 - 20 Melbourne Rebels

Tournaments/Tours: Super Rugby

Queensland Reds captain James Horwill credited his side's depth from the bench for a hard-fought victory over the Melbourne Rebels.

Queensland scored 20 points to three in the second term to secure a 33-20 bonus-point win which keeps them in finals contention.

In an unusual first half which featured three tries scored against the run of play, Reds fly-half Quade Cooper had two clearing kicks charged down, with both resulting in Rebels tries. The Reds' solitary five-pointer in the first period, scored by Luke Morahan, came from an intercept after a sustained period of Rebels pressure.

A try Jake Schatz try from a rolling maul brought the Reds within striking distance in the second half, before a superb effort from Cooper to stretch out and find the line put his side in front. Ben Lucas scored in the corner on the final siren to earn the Reds a valuable bonus point.

"Interstate games, there's a lot of passion out there, always is, any team you play," Horwill told reporters after the match. "I think that last 30 (minutes), one factor was the guys that came on off the bench did a great job for us. That was something that we knew going into the game that we needed guys to be able to finish strong, guys like your (Liam) Gill and Saia (Faingaa) and that coming in made a big impact."

The Reds were better able to implement their game-plan late in the second stanza after a mistake-prone first half, according to Horwill.

"We probably played more like we wanted to play in that last bit," he said. "We held onto the ball and built pressure. We turned over ball too easily in that first half and put ourselves under pressure, hence getting behind on the scoreboard and putting ourselves with ill-discipline and things like that. Once we put it all together and held on to the ball and applied pressure we got some results, which was pleasing."