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Second half no where near as fluent as the first, but still plenty to like. Last week I thought the Reds backrow were off their game. Big bounce back this week - McReight in particular excellent. Last week I thought you could see the intent in the Reds attack, but execution was way too loose...

At this stage it’s a complete reversal of last week for the Reds. Lineout very strong, but scrum struggling. Attacking shape looks good and passes mostly sticking. Breakdown still needs some improvement, but much better than it was last week. Campbell looking like his old self after a sub-par...

I’ve read back through the comments. I’m genuinely intrigued as to which comment(s) you are referring to here. I can’t see any Reds fan claiming that (albeit only from a quick scan).

I know it’s the Wallabies thread and all - but with that’s happened in the last 12 months excluding any player or group of players before a shot has even been fired in super rugby seems premature to me.

Agree - terrible news for him and also for the Force Really hope it’s not that bad - but that doesn’t look great.

I think some inaccuracy in the lineout at the start of the season is foregivable. Would be good to have fixed by round 1 though (or even better by this weekend). Reds have no reason not to have a strong lineout as they should always have 4 capable good jumpers on the field.

I thought he missed one and the rest were after he’d left the field

It’s really something that isn’t feasible with Brumbies list management. At the moment he’s presumably Brumbies 1 or 2 ranked Hooker and, as BR points out above, they have a host of good 7s. Doesn’t make any sense for them to try and convert him (and it’s not like his ability to pilfer is being...

Pretty sure it was reference to Tom Hooper who has played some 7 for the Brumbies - albeit as Slim pointed out not in the manner we normally associate with a 7 - but he does have an on-ball game. The discussion is really what do we want from our backrow as a cohort and then how does each player...

With Henry it may not be a straight shoot out between him & Paisami. I could see Vunivalu being under pressure to hold his spot with an option being to push Flook to the wing. If that is the case and if O’Connor is still hampered by injury then a centre pairing of Henry & Paisami may happen...

It shouldn’t be - but I read recently that the 5 Australian teams were all in the bottom 6 for winning their own ruck ball, so it seems like it is. Whether the players there are good enough to be re-trained or whether they need to be moved on I don’t have a firm view on.

With one trial left, what does everyone want to see out of the next game. A couple of things for me - - hoping to see all of Blyth, Smith, JOC (James O'Connor), Lynagh and at least one of the hookers back - would like to see a back three with Petaia on the wing and Campbell at fullback - would like to see our...

Regardless of it being a trial both teams and both coaching groups would have loved to start off with a win. The Force were obviously running their own 2nd & 3rd tier players too. Congrats to them for getting it done.

I can remember a few years ago (can’t remember the exact year) when the Reds had two good wins in trials. Got to the regular season and the results went South. I still always feel a bit better when my team wins, but I really don’t think you can read much at all into trials, regardless of the score.

You also don’t know what training loads players have been under. I know little if S&C best practice but I’ve heard enough stories in the past to know players who play flat are sometimes coming off high training loads and struggle as a result. Not saying this is a factor here - I have no idea -...

I guess the question is whether Uru was doing it at the right time or wrong. My impression was a bit of both. Certainly there were times when the space was absolutely there and we just mucked it up but I thought it times we could have been more direct. I feel it was more a sign the players are...

True - but ii think that is why we have to temper expectations for a first year coaching team. New structures and better execution around breakdown do take some tine to bed down.

Isaac Henry seems decent size on the TV. How And probably one of our more skillful backs and seems to run a good line. Whether he is overall good enough to force himself into the starting team remains to be seen. Thoughts on him?

Yeah - the Reds were bad. The point at which winning a game is important is round 1. It’s always nice to bank a win but if winning was the priority yesterday we wouldn’t have seen half of those players in the field.

Kiss’ comments and mood after the game are intersting too. He seemed pretty content as a whole. I think one of the problems with a team trying to play a more upbeat, open style is that you get a very high error rate early on while players adjust to getting their execution right under pressure...