Stiles needs to dig himself out of hole

TURNING around the worst start to a Reds coaching career in a decade is the brutal necessity for Nick Stiles, who has reached his “bury the ball” moment.

The Reds will be searching for a tombstone for rugby in this state unless there is a resounding win over South Africa’s lowly Southern Kings at Suncorp Stadium this afternoon.

Stiles is popular with his players, pours in long hours, is transforming team culture, dishes out tough calls, works on neglected skills and is ferociously Queensland.

For all that, none of the seven coaches who preceded him as Reds boss had a poorer record than his 1-6 win-loss ledger after their first seven games in charge.

The only other limp to 1-6 was from Eddie Jones in the train wreck of 2007.

Super Rugby is unforgiving on rookie coaches as Mark McBain (2001), Andrew Slack (2003), Jeff Miller (2004) and Phil Mooney (2008) discovered with 2-from-7 starts.

John Connolly’s debut season in 1989 pre-dated Super Rugby when his 6-1 start was on a tour of South America.

“Definitely, you look at yourself because you analyse absolutely everything about what we must do better,” Stiles said.

Returning ace Quade Cooper yesterday said players and coaches were in the fight together when giving Stiles his unconditional backing.

“The group is very resilient and has worked hard on improving the culture so no one is giving up,” Cooper said.

“A sign of a good coach is being able to take the hits and continue to front up for the team as Stilesy is.

“I’ve always liked a coach who goes in to bat for you, someone you can rely on as a person and as a leader of the team.

“That’s one reason I felt he’d be a good coach for us and he still is.

“He’s also tough and ruthless when he needs to be as he’s shown on discipline and some selections in recent weeks.”