Queensland Reds' season-too-late decision to get rid of Richard Graham camouflaged another depressing episode from the last Super Rugby round.

Not surprisingly Graham's last game as Reds coach was well short of a champagne moment. Instead it smelt of stale grog as the Reds-Force match would rank right up there with the worst Australian derby matches in the two-decade history of the tournament.

It was a case of a two-out-of-10 Larry, Curly and Moe outfit defeating a naught-out-of10 Huey and Dewey mob in a game bereft of skill, spirit and substance. This was rugby at its most horrendous.

If the AFL, NRL and Australian soccer authorities really want to give their own codes a big boost, all they have to do is place a video replay of the Reds-Force farce on the homepage of their websites; their own participation numbers are bound to rise.

As demoralising was witnessing a once mighty province on its knees. The classic moment of this match came when the cameras crossed to the Reds' reserves bench after their over-rated Japanese full-back Ayumu Goromaru had successfully found touch with a clearing kick about 45 metres downfield.

It was about the only thing the Reds did right in the first half - but it didn't register with the reserves. Their morose looks made one wonder whether they were instead on Death Row.

© Chris Hyde/Getty Images

Hopefully the Reds will at last get their act together and secure a head coach who has some idea.

Hint. Hint. Scott Johnson, former Wallabies assistant coach and now Scotland director of rugby, lives in your part of the world, and would be more than handy overseeing the whole operation.

Certainly better than your hare-brained idea last year of bringing in that mischievous political animal John Connolly... and see how that ended up; a bucketful of tears.

But the other question remains. Was that the worst game ever played?

To provide a comparison, I headed deep into the dusty corners of my cave to dredge out some of the letters received some years ago while working for a once-prestigious broadsheet newspaper when I asked a similar question: What was the most horrible rugby game you ever played in or watched?

A re-read of these letters made my re-think. Maybe the Reds-Force game was actually a gem.

These letters included David Markham explaining that a Sydney subbies match involving Canterbury fourth grade in the 1960s took some beating. Canterbury's opposition arrived for the morning match "p---ed".

"The other side turned in a performance best described as bizarre, doing intricate backline moves where they ran into each other. In spite of that, our blokes never got within coo-ee of scoring a try. I think the game was best summed up by one of their forwards careering over the sideline to throw up."

Canterbury won 3-0.

Robert Walker recalled playing for Scotch College in 1970 in the Western Australian under-12s competition.

"On a very wet and windy Saturday morning we arrived at the Nedlands foreshore on the banks of the Swan River to discover that the previous night's storm had pushed the river level up over the seawall and flooded over the pitch.

"The only ground visible was a small mound in the middle of the field. The water was up to the knees of many players inside both 25-yard lines and the ball blew around the lake in the gale like a jet boat. Rucks and mauls were stopped in case someone drowned. Nedlands won and I spent the next summer learning to swim in case I was ever confronted by similar conditions again."

© David Rogers/Getty Images

Mark Williams argued that every rugby club in Australia should be sent a video of the 1974 Mosman-Canterbury third-grade final with the words 'How NOT to play rugby' stamped on it.

After the teams had played out a 0-0 draw in the first round, then finished 3-3 in the second, the score after extra-time in the final was again 3-3.

"At 35 minutes per half, plus 10 minutes of extra-time in the grand final, that equates to three hours and forty minutes of rugby for six points to each team. Boring? Appalling? Ask my father, he was the coach!"

Our ESPN man in Singapore, Jason 'Sticks' Dasey had no hesitation in describing his worst-ever game as that between Cammeray-Northbridge and Sydney Welsh in 1985.

The day before the game, Sydney Welsh had flown in four Llanelli players, two of them full internationals, including five-eighth and future rugby league convert Gary Pearse for a guest stint of a few weeks.

With their four ring-ins, the previously winless Welshmen secured a comfortable 27-0 win on an uneven field at Gladesville.

"I'll always remember the shock on their faces when they arrived at this bumpy suburban ground to find ten people, a dog and bit-part-players like me," Sticks said.

© Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

And finally Dave Alcock's shocker - when playing with the Stoke-on-Trent club in England some decades ago. The club had only one ground so Alcock's third-grade team had to play on an alternatative pitch.

The players walked about one kilometre down a country lane to a field where a farmer allowed them to play.

"Usually we had to shoo the cows off the pitch and take care when going to ground not to land on a cow pat," Alcock recalled.

"On this particular day there was a whippet meeting already in progress just off the rugby pitch, and there was some argument when they tried to get us to pay an admission fee.

"The game was ruined because every time there was a whippet race everyone stopped to watch it. As we'd begun late, the last 10 minutes were played in darkness. It was impossible to see the ball as it was being fed into the scrums, so the half-back had to shout when he was putting it in and the hooker then lashed out at the sound. Eventually the ref took pity and blew full-time.

"We were very cold, wet and muddy, but at least I don't think anyone lost any money on the dogs. We then walked back to the clubhouse and were looking forward to a nice hot bath. However, the first-grade match had finished some time earlier and they had already used the bath, which was filled with cold, very muddy water."

But you try to tell the young people today that ... and they won't believe ya.