The Queensland Reds have bounced back from a week of turmoil in style, notching a big 46-29 bonus-point victory over the Melbourne Rebels on Friday night.
Seven days on from a demoralising loss to the Crusaders that brought the franchise's awful Super Rugby season to a flashpoint, the Reds blew away their conference rivals with a sizzling five-try second-half to register just their third win of the year.
With John Connolly back in Queensland's coaching box for the first time since 2000, it was almost like the dominant Reds of old had returned in front of 17,993 fans at Suncorp Stadium.
The injection of rookie five-eighth Jake McIntyre gave Queensland the direction in attack they have been searching for ever since the loss of Quade Cooper to injury.
The 21-year-old marked a memorable Super Rugby debut with the first of three tries in a 10-minute stretch that snuffed out Melbourne's hopes early in the second half.
The Rebels posted the first two tries of the match - both through Sefa Naivalu - but completely went to water as Queensland's star-studded attack finally clicked and capitalised on flyhalf Jack Debreczeni's 53rd-minute sin-binning.
In arguably the best half of rugby under the reign of embattled coach Richard Graham, the Reds lined up to score with McIntyre, Chris Feauai-Sautia and Liam Gill going over while Lachie Turner bagged a double.
All up, Queensland put on 40 unanswered points before two late tries to Dom Shipperley and Luke Jones restored some respectability to the scoreboard for Melbourne.
The Reds went into the sheds behind 17-11 despite, much like last week in Christchurch, seeing plenty of early possession.
Naivalu's stunning first try came just five minutes in, the winger receiving the ball on his side's defensive 22m line and then flashing past the Reds' helpless backfielders.
Cutting inside McIntyre, Naivalu touched down under the posts to allow Mike Harris the easiest of conversions.
The Rebels made something out of nothing in the 32nd minute for Naivalu's second five-pointer.
Debreczeni collected the ball after a failed Reds midfield and spotted Mitch Inman on the move to his right.
Inman steadied and then unleashed a flying Naivalu, who again left his Queensland markers for dead.
But the Reds struck back four minutes from the break through Rob Simmons to reduce the margin, and then ran away with the match when they returned.
Graham said he was delighted with his team's comprehensive response to the "kick in the backside" that was the loss to the Crusaders.
"The natural instinct is you fight and I thought the group did that really well tonight," he said.
"The group have worked for six months, I suppose, and I think we've always said if we kept working hard and believe in the things you're doing, you get a result.
"It's a been long time coming."
Rebels coach Tony McGahan said there was little his side could do once a hungry Reds outfit got a roll on.
"I don't know what went on there this week but certainly that was always coming," he said.
"Nobody likes to be criticised - they're a proud club, a proud organisation and they were always going to come out and play well, especially in a local derby.
"They got everything they deserved."
