Quade Cooper is starting at 10. Bang.
That is about how long it took to turn this Saturday’s (admittedly must win) encounter against the Lions into a big deal. If you are interested, here is the presser where his return is announced:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iYJ2OGajzk[/youtube]
With that announcement, both the Lions match become one worth getting to and the news of Higgers departing was, not buried, but not really talked about. There has been much said about the Reds woes at 10 so it is good to hear that they are getting him back. The Biggest thing he will bring to the team is organisation. Sure, he may jink a little, throw a pass that isn’t on but sticks, Cut out three players with a 40 metre pin point pass to Digby, cross field kick to… Well, maybe he won’t actually do any of that. In fact I think the coaching staff will be hoping mainly for a god 40-60 minutes of solid rugby with no pain afterwards.
One thing that wont have taken a rest and will still be as sharp as ever, Quade’s Footy Brain, I know, stick with me… All the time Quade has spent off the field, watching from the sidelines or running the water, he has been watching. To him there are countless opportunities going to waste. Clear as day to him. This time he will be out there to put the ball at the right runner at the right time. And the players outside him will know that so watch the support runners running with intent, looking like it’s them the ball is going to. But, enough of the man love…
Believe it or not, there will be 29 others on the field (plus the Ref, but I do hope this is the last time he gets a mention). From the team that took the Chiefs apart last week, the only change in the backs sees Ben Lucas drop back to the full back made vacant by Luke Morahan moving to the bench.
Up front two thirds of the front row change, James slipper now joined by Saia Faingaa and Greg Holmes in a clean swap to the bench with James Hanson and Ben Daley. Rotation? Chibba could sure do with the rest.
On the bench we see the first 4:3 split from Ewen, obviously a nod to the fact that QC isn’t expected to see the match out with his first run. This give exciting young prospect Chris F’Sautia the opportunity to (hopefully) debut. Given the talk about this young fellow, I for one am excited to see what he has got toward the end of the match.
The Lions have named an unchanged team to the one that lost to the Blues last week. Quite frankly, any team that lets the disappointing Blues beat them are either the Bulls or just not that good. I do certainly think it is more the latter. Short of the most awesomely named centre in world rugby, Jaco Taute, and the most impressive beard carried by captain Josh Strauss they don’t bring much to the field.
They have a reputation as a team that can score a few points, but the truth is they do one thing predominantly and the do it poorly. They run the ball from everywhere, rarely kicking. They kick the least in the whole comp. The badly part comes because the are the most turned over team in the whole comp. You can expect Gill and the scavenging Fiangaas to have a field day, providing plenty of ball for the backs.
They are an uncomfortable team to play, but with the Reds new (re)found belief they won’t cause too much trouble to this Reds team.
Teams
Reds: 1. Greg Holmes, 2. Saia Faingaa, 3. James Slipper, 4. Rob Simmons, 5. James Horwill (c), 6. Jake Schatz, 7. Liam Gill, 8. Scott Higginbotham, 9. Will Genia, 10. Quade Cooper, 11. Digby Ioane, 12. Mike Harris, 13. Anthony Faingaa, 14. Dom Shipperley, 15. Ben Lucas. Reserves: 16. James Hanson, 17. Ben Daley, 18. Adam Wallace-Harrison, 19. Eddie Quirk, 20. Nick Frisby, 21. Chris F’Sautia, 22. Luke Morahan.
Lions: 15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Deon Van Rensburg, 13 Lionel Mapoe, 12 Jaco Taute, 11 Michael Killian, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Ross Cronje, 8 Joshua Strauss (c), 7 Grant Hattingh, 6 Derick Minnie, 5 Ruan Botha, 4 Franco Van der Merwe, 3 Patric Cilliers, 2 Callie Visagie, 1 JC Janse van Rensburg. Replacements: 16 Martin Bezuidenhout, 17 CJ Van der Linde, 18 Cobus Grobbelaar, 19 Jaco Kriel, 20 Tian Meyer, 21 Ruan Combrinck, 22 James Kamana.
Details
Date: Saturday 19th May
Venue: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Kick Off local: 19:40 Local (9:40 GMT, 21:40 NZT, 19:40 NSW/ACT, 11.40 SAT)
Referee: Keith Brown
Assistant Refs: Angus Gardner, Damien Mitchelmore
TMO: Steve Leszczynski
Game Breaker
With the Lions propensity to loose the ball, and Liam Gill’s propensity to help teams do just that, I think Gilly is in for another blinder. It isn’t just that he has been in cracking form of late, but he is also fresh of an appearance on our latest podslam. That tends to focus an athletes performance the next hit out. Just saying…
The Fearless Prediction
50 point flogging. Actually that isn’t so fearless, it will be the Reds by plenty.
