With perhaps the exception of the Bulls, the Reds’ team to take on the Clan this Saturday is almost unrecognisable from the team’s last outing. Through injury and an eye to the future, Link has made six changes from the infamy that was Wellington.
Ben Lucas comes in at the unfamiliar fullback position due to Rocket’s injury with Marcia moving to the wing, while Ben Tapuai replaces the injured Anthony Faingaa. Jake Schatz gets the gig ahead of the punted Andrew Shaw with Sean Hardman replacing the other Faingaa and James Slipper taking over from the winged Ben Daley.
On the bench Tasi gets his first chance to suit up and Richard Kingi makes his way back just in time before he heads off to Melbourne while JFK gets another crack and Ed Quirk replaces the injured Tomiki.
It’s a case of something old and something new for the Reds with Sean Hardman to play his 123rd and final game while Tigers backrower, Ed Quirk, and Red Heavy hooker, James Hanson, will more than likely play their first off the bench.
There will be a sense of coming full circle for Hardman who plays his last game against the same team he made his debut against 10 years ago.
The selection of Lucas at fullback is an interesting one and will give the Reds a fair bit of scope to change things around should he and Quade want to do some swappsies throughout the match.
The rest of it is a bit of an unknown, sort of like a Baa-Baa’s team is some respects. It all looks pretty reasonable on paper, but with a fair few untried combinations, who knows?
Perhaps the biggest thing working in the home team’s favour is the opposition. After a stirring win against the Tahs at home the Highlanders barely raised a whimper last week as they played the Brumbies into form.
Since then the Highlanders have spent a relaxing week on the Goldie – not the sort of preparation that would inspire the team to rise above its lowly 13th place on the table.
I can’t fathom the logic of spending the week at the beach before playing in Brisbane. Generally the Jappies teams do it as well and look at how shithouse their record at Lang Park has been lately.
No matter, what is important is the Reds produce display that is energetic and industrious, something that has been missing for the last fortnight.
Sure the Reds showed some flourishes in attack last week but when the heat came on, they were not able to roll the sleeves up and defend as they were through the middle rounds of the comp.
It will be interesting to see how Will Chambers performs with a few new faces around him and without the rock solid Faingaa beside him. He has been the most impressive of the Super 14 newcomers this season and should make the Wallaby squad so this game shapes as another stage in his development.
The Reds have given everyone a great ride this season – from the lows of the Tahs and Canes, to the highs of the Saders and Bulls. It’s hard to see this game coming close to either of those two poles, but nor should it.
This game should be a throw it around celebration. A celebration of a stalwart like Sean Hardman bowing out, a celebration of what the team achieved this year, and a celebration that for the first time 7 years the Reds have finished a season in better shape than when they started it.
Cote says – The Reds to belt a sunburnt Clan by 20.
p.s. get down to Ballymore Friday afternoon for the team’s final training season and enjoy a sausage sizzle from 4.30 pm.
