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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
Who's Jarrad Hohepa?
1 Go to commentsSo let me get this straight. Say you have the dominant scrum. You are 99% sure you can go for a scrum pushover try on the line to win the game. The opposition knows it too. They give away a silly tap kick instead. You are now not allowed to scrum. This is ridiculous! *%@ing the game up as usual! The fact that the attacking teams are not allowed to scrum from a held up over the line is just as ridiculous. Really world rugby? Careful people might start a rebel league called True Rugby or Real Rugby.
72 Go to comments12 subs during a game? How has that been allowed to happen NB? I hate when the game goes in this monopolistic direction closing up shop, it just becomes non sport. Btw have you seen anything of how Liam Coltman was tracking for Lyon? He has just signed to return to Otago though we have a couple of young hookers developing here. He was a popular gentle natured character down here and I’m glad to see him back but maybe he will be a mentor primarily?
4 Go to commentsGreat breakdown and the global politics always confuses me a little. The southern hemisphere seems to be left out a bit but I wouldn’t even know where to start with fixing it. Club challenge could be a step in the right direction
4 Go to commentsSince he coached Free state, from that time onwards, I maintained he was the coach for the Boks. A nice, no nonsense guy with an excellent brain, who gets results.
11 Go to commentswell - they only played against 14 men and had the TMO team on their side - and still should have lost… so actually that makes sense.
32 Go to commentsSouthern hemisphere Rugby is exactly that, boring. Northern Hemisphere Rugby is soooo much more entertaining and better with better players.
2 Go to commentsIf he was to be cited for a dangerous behavior, then it’s natural that he should be. Then NTamack too, yes? And I’ll add a good whataboutism - Yeandle eye-gouging on Richie Arnold: not cited. Eye-gouging. Not high tackle. Eye-gouging. It was on French TV, with French TV directors.
5 Go to commentsReally poorly written rambling piece ..
4 Go to commentsIt was so boring
2 Go to commentspersonally I’d go with : 1. France 2. NZ 3. England 4. Ireland 5. Scotland
32 Go to commentsAndy everything becomes easier with experience therefor counting etc straight after a match becomes easier when you have 100+ caps vs 17 which is the experience you speak from.
160 Go to commentsGetting rid of the Dupont Law is a good thing and ought to have been done months ago! Officially getting rid of the croc roll is a good thing. The law about no scrums from a short arm is well intended in terms of speeding the game up but it’s an overreaction to a clever yet calculated gamble that could have blow up in South Africa’s face if they conceded a penalty from the scrum that was set after Willemse took claimed the mark in the World Cup QF.
72 Go to commentsRassie The GOAT
11 Go to commentsOf their 5 big matches in RWC Scotland and NZ were the easiest. They took a 12-3 lead against NZ and after the red decided it was best to hold the lead and take chances that came. None came and it was tight but they dug a lot deeper in the other two knock out matches. They had trounced NZ in Twickenham in a fixture that NZ must now regret. Psychology was clearly with SA in the final as a result.
32 Go to commentsMy favourite line/exchanges from Chasing the Sun 2. News headline: “SA. The last hurdle in ABs World Cup glory”. Something like that. “You’re all just a hurdle. A hop, skip and a jump”. Coming from Rassie and Jacque. Basically - nobody thinks you’re going to win. You’re just a pushover team. Nobody respects you. When the camera shows the players faces, you can see the effect. You can see the rev meters (die moer metertjies) firing up. Mitchell said he felt it prior to the 19 final. He said to Eddie watching the teams warming up that it was going to be a tough day at the office. Wave a red flag in front of South African, and you can expect a reaction. This is not unique - many teams rev themselves. And Bok teams in particular. With horrific consequences (discipline, poor thinking under pressure) because that’s the drawback to using emotion right? But what this Bok team does better than many since 2007 is channel the emotion and stay on task. Despite the emotion. Why, because while Rassie might play mind games - he talks about creating a safe environment. Listen to his recent honorary doctorate acceptance speech. While he uses psychology he creates psychological safety. He’s a damn fine coach. Can’t wait for Pretoria. It’s going to be a hummer.
11 Go to commentsWhat Rassie does for SA is big. It has helped people to unite and see we can win with the right people in place.
11 Go to commentsTerrible conditions for young players to express themselves just enjoy it guys. As a saffa great to see Ausie youth looking good. Wow SA have some great talent also.
2 Go to commentsYes, another example of French tv directors ensuring that incidents like this are swiftly glossed over for the benefit of their teams…
5 Go to commentsThe prospect of the club match ups across hemispheres is surely appetising for everyone. The reality however, may prove to be slightly different. There are currently two significant driving forces that have delivered to same teams consistently to the latter champions cup stages for years now. The first of those is the yawning gap in finances, albeit delivered by different routes. In France it’s wealthy private owners operating with a higher salary cap by some distance compared to England. In Ireland it’s led by a combination of state tax relief support, private Leinster academy funding and IRFU control - the provincial budgets are not equal! This picture is not going to change anytime soon. The second factor is the EPCR competition rules. You don’t need a PhD. in advanced statistical analysis from oxbridge to see the massive advantage bestowed upon the home team through every ko round of the tournament. The SA teams will gain the opportunity for home ko ties in due course but that could actually polarise the issue even further, just look at their difficulties playing these ties in Europe and then reverse them for the opposition travelling to SA. Other than that, the picture here is unlikely to change either, with heavyweight vested interests controlling the agenda. So what does all this point to for the club world championship? Well the financial differential between the nh and sh teams is pretty clear. And the travel issues and sporting challenge for away teams are significantly exacerbated beyond those already seen in the EPCR tournaments. So while the prospect of those match ups may whet our rugby appetites, I’m very much still to be convinced the reality will live up to expectations…
4 Go to comments