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Queensland Reds heading forward with youth movement– Super Rugby 2018 Preview
No team has had as tumultuous an offseason as the Queensland Reds.
There have been more dramas at Ballymore than an episode of the Kardashians. The turnstile of head coaches continued with the appointment of Brad Thorn last year, ending the short stint of Nick Stiles, who ousted co-coach Matt O’Connor, both of whom replaced Richard Graham.
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Thorn stamped his authority early, promptly telling halfback Nic Frisby and beloved flyhalf Quade Cooper they won’t be required for the upcoming season, creating a firestorm of media attention and fan backlash.
Things went from bad to worse when Karmichael Hunt became embroiled in his second off-field drugs scandal, and to top it off ex-Wallaby legend George Smith was arrested in Japan.
After everything the fan base has been through the last few years, things couldn’t get any worse.
Amid all the noise, what Thorn has done is draw the line in the sand. He has been the first coach to make proactive personnel moves seemingly against the will of Reds recruitment manager Sam Cordingley.
With Cooper only one year into his three-year $800,000 per season contract, dropping him to club rugby is a lot of dead money for the cash-strapped Reds which shows Thorn is hell-bent on starting a new era.
A spate of high-profile, short-sighted signings have glossed over poor performance in recent years – Karmichael Hunt, James O’Connor, Ayumu Goromaru, Stephen Moore, George Smith, Leroy Houston and league converts like Lachlan Maranta have renewed hope but underwhelmed.
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Each year they have banked on short-term (and often expensive) fixes, instead of taking a hit and building around young talent for the long-term. This is what is finally happening at the Reds – Thorn is preparing to re-build around his young charges.
He has regenerated the forward pack by upgrading a number of youth system players; Angus Blyth, Harry Hockings, Harry Hoopert, Angus Scott-Young and Liam Wright, most of whom played under Thorn in the Reds under-20s.
Quade’s replacement is 20-year-old flyhalf Hamish Stewart, who debuted last year. 21-year-old James Tuttle looks to be the number one halfback and the midfield pairing of Duncan Paia’aua and captain Samu Kerevi are still only 23 and 24-years-old respectively.
The few signings they have made, are all ironically ex-players that were unwanted or squeezed out at some stage. While Jono Lance, Ben Lucas and Aidan Toua aren’t splash-recruits, they will bring valuable experience and key positional depth to the side at flyhalf and fullback to cover for the loss of Cooper and Hunt.
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The Reds nursery is one of the best in Australia – they run talent at a surplus but often export the best of it to other teams – see David Pocock, Sean McMahon and a young James O’Connor (pre-braids and cornrows). Eventually, the system will re-produce quality Super Rugby starters.
With less focus on high-profile recruiting and more on retaining talent, a Reds turnaround shouldn’t take too long, just don’t expect too much this year. Although with just four, three and four wins in the last three seasons 2018 could still be an improvement.
2018 Predictions
Australian Conference Placing: 4th
Player of the Year: Samu Kerevi
Rookie of the Year: Angus Blyth
Breakout Player: Duncan Paia’aua
Best Signing: Ben Lucas
Franchise History
Best finish: Champions in 2011
Worst finish: Fifteenth in 2016
Squad movements
In: Angus Blyth (Bond University), Filipo Daugunu (Queensland Country), Harry Hockings (University of Queensland), Harry Hoopert (Brothers Old Boys), Tate McDermott (Queensland Country), Brandon Paenga-Amosa (NSW Country Eagles), Angus Scott-Young (Queensland Country), JP Smith (Brumbies), Liam Wright (Queensland Country), Ben Lucas (Toyota Verbitz), Jono Lance (Worcester Warriors), Aidan Toua (Brumbies).
Out: Leroy Houston (Bordeaux), Phil Kite (Vannes), Chris Kuridrani (Brisbane City), Campbell Magnay (Sungoliath), Jake McIntyre (Agen), Stephen Moore (retired), Caderyn Neville (Toyota Industries Shuttles), Jayden Ngamanu (Brisbane City), Rob Simmons (Waratahs), Kirwan Sanday (Queensland Country), Henry Taefu (Colomiers), Sam Takakai (Rebels), Hendrik Tui (Sungoliath), Quade Cooper (released), Nick Frisby (released).
Full Squad: Angus Blyth, Filipo Daugunu, Kane Douglas, Sef Fa’agase, Chris Feauai-Sautia, Michael Gunn, Reece Hewat, Scott Higginbotham, Harry Hockings, Harry Hoopert, Karmichael Hunt, Samu Kerevi, Adam Korczyk, Jono Lance, Ben Lucas, Alex Mafi, Lachlan Maranta, Tate McDermott, Eto Nabuli, Brandon Paenga-Amosa, Duncan Paia’aua, Izaia Perese, Andrew Ready, Izack Rodda, Angus Scott-Young, James Slipper, George Smith, Jean-Pierre Smith, Moses Sorovi, Hamish Stewart, Caleb Timu, Aidan Toua, Lukhan Tui, Taniela Tupou, James Tuttle, Markus Vanzati, Liam Wright.
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Comments on RugbyPass
Je suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
25 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
25 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to comments