Author: Sucker for Red

If you missed the ladies performing at the International Global Tens earlier this year give yourself an uppercut and go and read Reg’s preview of this game to get onto the same page of the rest of us. I for one have been hanging out to see a woman’s competition. Not all of us are built for the speed required to play 7’s. Some of us are built for strength and the dark arts. This competition finally provides an outlet for the tight five’s. (Oh to be 25 years younger!) With the teams being mainly amateur you would have to…

g> So here we are at the pointy end of the season. Queensland Country and Fiji Dura playing off to see who will meet the Vikings next week in Canberra in the big dance. First a word on the curtain raiser. As a demonstration of a strong girls comp on the Darling Downs the Toowoomba Anglican College and Preparatory School (TACaPS) and Scots PGC played U14’s and U16’s 7’s games. The U14’s ended in a 17 all draw and the U16’s ended with a runaway victory to TACaPS 27 – 0. I love to watch these games and see the…

So here we are at the tail end of the season. On a very hot afternoon in Ipswich. QLD Country playing for the minor premiership. Perth Spirit playing for bucket loads of pride and a place in the finals.   First Half For the first nine & a half minutes seemed like each side was just testing what the other had to offer. But eventually QLD Country settled the play and after a nice little wrap around play by the loosehead prop (Slipper) and the hooker (Ma’afu), Jock Campbell went over to open the scoring. Tuttle converted to make the…

Hands up who has heard about Stockman Rugby? Yep. Thought so. Not many (22% according to my not-so-scientifically designed Twitter poll), so let me fill you in. The Australian Stockman Rugby team is a representative team drawn from remote, rural and regional Australia. There are 4 criteria used to select participants – Ability, Character, Potential and Experience, and Strength and Fitness. In the words of the Stockman Founder Shaun Makin, “their rugby related attributes are important, but we believe their character and behaviour is also important.” So, why am I telling you this? Well, Stockman Rugby Australia are about to…

With these teams sitting in positions seven and eight on the ladder this game should have been tight. Brisbane City needed the win to stay in finals contention. The Rays were, realistically, playing for pride. First Half The first half seemed to be all one way traffic with Brisbane City having the bulk of possession and territory. Handling errors, penalties and kicks by the Rays just continuously handed the ball back to Brisbane. Not a good idea when you have Quade Cooper, Karmichael Hunt, Maalonga Konelio and Ed Fidow bringing it back. The Rays opened the scoring when Rohan…

Queensland Country is leading the competition. NSW Country is on a roll with two wins in a row. Who will come out on top? This was either going to be a legendary game or…… one of those games that you want to put out of its misery before it is done. First Half Well, the heart got firmly planted in the mouth when 28 seconds into the game Patrick McCutcheon charged down a Hamish Stewart clearing kick. Luckily for QLD Izaia Perese was switched on enough to beat McCutcheon to the ball and force a 22 drop out. It wasn’t…

Both teams come into this game with two games played for a 1/1 record. They hold the two lowest positions on the table for points scored against and positions seven and eight for points scored with only NSW Country below them. This was shaping up to be a brutal dour affair. First Half For the first 20 minutes, all the running seemed to be with the Rays. (Bearing in mind I missed the first eight minutes due to technical issues.) Repeated kicking in behind the QLD Country line was catching the outside backs out of position. After one such kick,…

Is there anything better than rugby with breakfast on a Sunday morning? On a form front, the Jaguares start the game with three wins from the opening four games. The Reds were the complete opposite with one from four. And the Reds have not won on the road since 2015. Sigh…. A late change to the Reds side saw Leroy Huston being left out of the 15 with an eye injury, Hendrick Tui moving into blindside flanker & George Smith coming onto the bench. Looking for something positive, I had a quick glance at the team sheets. Did you know…

1:00 am. That in between time when you are not sure if you should go to bed or not….. Stumble outta bed, stumble in the kitchen, pour myself a cup of ambition……. Is this going to be worth it? With the Lions on a seven match winning streak at home this was always going to be a tough ask for the Reds. Embed from Getty Images The Match First Half The first 10 minutes was back and forward between the two teams with both making errors to relieve any pressure the opposition might have been able to muster. The best…

It is nearly Super Rugby season! Are we all getting excited? As a Reds supporter I am trying to keep any excitement, and expectations, in check. But let’s have a look at what the year ahead has in store. The Squad Back in October when the full squad was announced RugbyReg did a nice review of the who’s who of the Reds squad. But let’s have a quick squiz at the unders and overs. There seems to be a fair mix of experience and enthusiastic youth. The return of Squeaky Moore, Leroy Houston and Higgers (more about that later),…

Saturday afternoon sees us in Toowoomba for the Outback Battle…… Rugby’s “Place of Origin” (thanks Reg)….. or just some bloody good footy on a beautiful day. For a side that leads the competition stats in clean breaks, defenders beaten, line out catches and meters QLD Country has, let’s not beat around the bush, a pretty poor record. While NSW Country don’t appear on the stats leader boards as a team or individually they did come into the game unbeaten. Sorta kinda matters that…. Things started well for QLD country with Alex Casey making a sprint down field after intercepting a…

So, let’s review what happened last week : The Reds played better than they had all season and still didn’t come away with a win, but in good news they didn’t lose either. It was their discipline that let the side down in the end, with it being some how appropriate that it was a penalty after an extended defensive effort that allowed the Blues to equal the scores after the fulltime hooter. In a replay of one of the 2015 Super Rugby semi-finals the Higlanders visited Tah territory  and again came away with the win despite a valiant comeback by the home side…

There is a poem that starts out “There was movement at the station……..”, well this one starts with “There was movement at the Reds………” At 1 pm this afternoon the Queensland Rugby Union announce that it’s CEO of some seven years, Jim Carmichael, will not be looking to extend his contract which expires towards to end of this year.  A decision that was apparently reached in December. “Although in sport, the work is never completed, I was satisfied with the transformation and reform we have put in place not only for Rugby in Queensland but also for the influence we have been…

After twelve months of bunkering down in the Butterfield Street boardroom and defending the castle against a significant proportion of Queensland rugby stakeholders (read Reds Fans), the QRU has released Richard Graham from his contract. Effective immediately. Between now and when a new Head Coach is appointed, assistant coaches Matt O’Connor and Nick Stiles have been appointed co-interim coaches. Graham was controversially appointed by the Reds in 2012 as part of a succession plan for Ewen McKenzie. After two seasons in the top job and, what we are assured was a high-performance review and extensive international search, he was reappointed for the 2016 season…

With both teams coming off losses this game was shaping up to be Desperate Dan type of stuff. The Match Much of the first half was played in the air with both sides kicking for territory. Jono Lance’s searching kicks for the Force were very effective in getting behind the Reds line and turning them around. Although McIntyre’s return kicks were not so effective, the class of Goromaru could be seen when the ball made it into his hands. First blood was drawn by the Force in the fourth minute when Lance converted the first of many penalties. The Reds…

It’s Australia Day and Super Rugby kicks off in precisely 31 big sleeps. Less than that if you work night shifts. (Correct at the time of writing.) So I thought I would try and see what there might be to get us excited about the Queensland Reds in 2016. The Draw If anyone admits to fully understanding the draw for the new competition structure…. don’t believe them. With the addition of the Kings (South Africa), Jaguares (Argentina) and Sunwolves (Japan) the competition has become a behemoth. Within the Australian Conference we no longer play home & away against all…

Anyone else been to a RWC final when the Wallabies were in it? OMG OMG OMG OMG OH. MY. GOD. We were in the final. Playing New Zealand. AND. I. WAS. THERE. (Gulp) (Sorry for the capitals and full stops fellas but I was EXCITED.) Support of the neutrals seemed pretty split. Mainly along the lines of nationality of spouse/partner I think. But deep down the under dog got some cheers. Some may have been silent so as not to cause domestics but still they were there……. I wake up this morning wondering if it was all a dream…….. but…

Sucker For Red’s take on the Semi’s.

Sucker For Red’s take on the Quarters

OK peoples. Let me get something off my chest that I desperately need to. (And it is not the pneumonia that I think I am suffering.) I have been on tour for the last 20 days with a great bunch of fanatical Wallaby & rugby supporters but last night, at what was the BIGGEST game for the Wallabies so far this tournament, there were sections of the group who believed that cheering loudly and singing Waltzing Matilda were not what should be done at a rugby game. To the point of asking, nay, DEMANDING that people who were cheering &…