Queensland Reds
The Reds suck.
They won the competition in 2011, got third the following year and fifth the year after that; then they plummeted to 13th spot in 2014.
It was a poor result for new coach Richard Graham.
They started the season well beating the Brumbies in Canberra—not an easy gig—but they were thrashed by the Waratahs the following week. They lacked aggression that night in Sydney, had no impact in the tight, defence was a shambles and they lacked ticker. This was a portent of what they would produce for most of the season, and they didn’t look fit as other sides did either.
Only a few teams missed more tackles than they did and they had one of the lowest tallies of clean breaks.
Stan Pilecki was right – they sucked.
They will crow about all the good backs they have for 2015 but they haven’t recruited much for their tight five—not that the guys who left were any good. And they seem to have a dozen back rowers who will be like tits on a bull if the big guys don’t improve.
Reds players sucked in 2014
But I forget—they have the “Tongan Thor”, a teenage YouTube champion. Good luck propping up the scrum young fella.
They’ve got only one good scrummaging prop, new captain James Slipper, and he may have to move over to the tight head side to accommodate others at loose head.
In replacing some of their backs: Dom Shipperley, Rod Davies and Jonah Placid they have lost a lot of pace in their back three. They have also lost the utility value of Ben Lucas and Mike Harris—and flyhalf Quade Cooper has no experienced specialist back up. That’s gotta suck.
And, I’m picking it’s going to take a while to find out what their best back line is and longer still for them to combine well together. They had enough problems in 2014 when the knew each other well.
Slipper may end up a good captain but Rob Simmons and Karmichael Hunt as vice-captains will not inspire the Reds’ faithful. The choices made were because Graham thinks, perhaps correctly, that Quade Cooper and Will Genia won’t be around in 2016, Anthony Fainga’a won’t be a regular starter this year and Liam Gill may not shake off a mini-slump.
And talking of Hunt—how can anybody who played league for the Broncos and then played AFL, be any good in Super Rugby?
Someone else was you say??
Karmichael Hunt – for Biarritz v. Clermont – could be a good recruit
Why the Reds may not suck in 2015
Coach Graham is in his second year, knows the problems and has also introduced some dashing players into the back line. It could be an exciting group if he can make them jell quickly and Hunt picks up the game he had in Biarritz immediately.
Hunt’s ability to hoof the ball long distances down the field could be an attribute the Reds have lacked since Chris Latham, and the impact that James O’Connor will have from the wing could match that of Digby Ioane, albeit in a different way.
It could be a breakout year for centre Samu Kerevi who had an astonishing starting debut in a losing game against the Force last year in Perth.
If their tight five as a unit did not inspire confidence in 2014 the performance of hookers Saia Fainga’a and James Hanson was impressive on the recent Wallabies’ Spring tour. And despite my earlier sly remarks about their tight five, the Reds had better scrum and lineout success rates on their throw-ins than the competition winners last year: the Waratahs.
The acquisition of flanker Adam Thomson is a coup even though the Reds have too many backrowers and not enough good props. Though not the same kind of player he could have the impact that Jacques Potgieter had at the Waratahs last year, and he could be a inspiration to somebody like Curtis Browning—and perhaps help Liam Gill to lift.
Suckiness index – 6
See next page for why the Brumbies suck
