Saturday afternoon rugby returns to Brisbane this weekend when the Reds take on the new boys from Japan. Normally you would expect a club with a long, proud history to easily dispatch a brand new club whose players were thrown together a few weeks before the season started. But these aren’t normal times.
The Reds started the year with great set pieces, a rookie halves pairing, an untried back line and the wrong coach. 13 rounds later they still have great set pieces but except for a few bright points in the backs everything else seems to be depressingly beige. Nick Frisby seems to be the type of halfback we rarely see in Australian rugby where flyhalves are the centre of the universe. He looks like a halfback that can run a backline. But that’s just not going to work with his rookie flyhalf.
Outside of them there are good players but besides the ‘give it to Kerevi’ plan not much else has worked. Every back has had their moments but they have be few and far between. Some a lot farther and fewer than others.
The rumblings in our forum have steadily grown for changes to be made but despite the enormous power our forums wield the coaches have stuck to their players and without a clear look at the alternatives we can’t really be sure if a change would be better.
What About The Sunwolves?
To tell the truth I’ve watched pieces of games here and there. Checked out the guy who used to be the Reds favourite redhead and he seems to be going pretty well. Our new redhead, Campbell Magnay, is going okay for a young guy. but back to the Sunwolves. All I can give you is a few stats. We have a better lineout and scrum. DUH! And we are higher on the ladder but they actually score more points and tries per games than us. They leak more points too. And that’s their main problem. Unfortunately our main problem, not scoring points, dovetails neatly into theirs.
And The Reds?
Don’t hold your breath but there may be an outside chance of Samu Kerevi playing this week. He will be pretty keen to give the wallaby coach another look at his wares. That would mean a pretty big reshuffle of the backs. I’d like to see him at 12 and Fainga’a on the wing but we’ll just have to wait and see.
The Teams
[one_half last=”no”]
Sunwolves
1 Masataka Mikami
2 Takeshi Kizu
3 Shinnosuke Kakinaga
4 Timothy Bond
5 Fa’ Atiga Lemalu
6 Liaki Moli
7 Andrew Durutalo
8 Ed Quirk
9 Atsushi Hiwasa
10 Tusi Pisi
11 John Stewart
12 Harumichi Tatekawa (c)
13 Derek Carpenter
14 Akihito Yamada
15 Riaan Viljoen
Replacements
16 Shota Horie
17 Keita Inagaki
18 Takuma Asahara
19 Yoshiya Hosoda
20 Taiyo Ando
21 Yuki Yatomi
22 Yu Tamura
23 Mifiposeti Paea
[/one_half]
[one_half last=”yes”]
Reds
1. James Slipper (C)
2. Andrew Ready
3. Greg Holmes
4. Cadeyrn Neville
5. Rob Simmons
6. Hendrik Tui
7. Liam Gill
8. Curtis Browning
9. Nick Frisby
10. Jake McIntyre
11. Eto Nabuli
12. Anthony Fainga’a
13. Campbell Magnay
14. Chris Feauai-Sautia
15. Ayumu Goromaru
Replacements
16. Matt Mafi
17. Sef Fa’agase
18. Sam Talakai
19. Ben Matwijow
20. Michael Gunn
21. James Tuttle
22. Duncan Paia’aua
23. Junior Laloifi
[/one_half]
The Fearless Prediction
Not so fearless here. The Reds are going to win this. Unless I’m wrong. Reds by 14.
