By Justin Chadwick
February 7th 2010 @ 2:10am
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O’Connor may be forced to take on five-eighth role
Western Force coach John Mitchell has flagged the possibility of playing star back James O’Connor at five-eighth this Super 14 campaign after former Springbok Andre Pretorius suffered a season-ending hamstring injury.
Pretorius’ one-year stint as the Force’s international marquee signing was cruelly ended before it even really begun when the 31-year-old ripped his hamstring off the bone at training on Wednesday.
While Mitchell is yet to decide who will replace Pretorius in the No.10 jersey, the coach threw up plenty of options, with O’Connor among the names put forward.
O’Connor started his career at inside centre for the Force but in more recent times has blossomed at fullback in the Wallabies‘ set-up.
While it was always thought O’Connor would eventually take over as the Force’s No.1 five-eighth, the 19-year-old may be forced to take on the responsibility sooner than expected following Pretorius’ misfortune and Matt Giteau’s departure.
“We’ve had good versatility in our group,” Mitchell said when asked how the team would replace Pretorius.
“If you look at the mix (at five-eighth) there was Andre, Sammy Harris, Mark Bartholomeusz, James O’Connor, you’ve also got Stefano Hunt.
“So we’ve got a number of permutations there within the group and that’s always been the way we’ve built it.”
One-Test Wallaby Bartholomeusz impressed at No.10 in the Force’s 31-12 trial win over the Reds on Friday night to show he is a viable option for the role.
Pretorius has already signed a multi-year deal to play in Japan after the season concludes, meaning he will never play a Super 14 game for the Force.
“We were really gutted for him,” Mitchell said.
“It’s really hard for a player to experience what he’s going through. He’s taking it pretty hard but we’ve got to move on.
“There’s going to be more hurdles as the competition moves on, it’s just a pretty tough one we’ve got to get over right now.”
Meanwhile, Reds coach Ewen McKenzie said his team’s big loss to the Force was a mere hiccup ahead of next Saturday’s season opener against NSW in Brisbane.
Queensland were never in the game after the Force raced out to a 20-0 lead inside 20 minutes.
“Both teams have one eye on next week so the analysis that went into this game was limited,” McKenzie said.
“I think we learned today that if we kick the ball away and give away silly penalties it’s hard work.
“There’s a couple of lessons there but nothing mind shattering, it’s pretty much the basics of the game that we didn’t get right.”
Reds five-eighth Quade Cooper put in a solid performance in his first match since being charged with burglary last year, setting up Queensland’s first try of the match in the 29th minute with a surging run and perfectly-weighted grubber kick, which winger Rod Davies pounced on.
But it wasn’t enough to inspire a comeback as the Force’s dominant forward pack and clinical backline ensured the visitors endured a miserable night.
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Frank O'Keeffe said | February 7th 2010 @ 12:52pm | Report comment
Not a bad idea if you ask me.
O’Connor has said he’s more comfortable at inside centre because he sees the ball more and can get into the game better. In hindsight Deans probably made a mistake blooding a 19-year-old into the Test arena in a position he (to my knowledge) hadn’t played before. But the problem with inside centre is O’Connor’s going to have to be tackling guys much larger than he is, and that’ll take it’s toll. And in the modern game backs are expected to win ruck ball as well (eg Umaga and Horan). Whereas at five-eighth O’Connor would have less tackling to do (although teams may focus on the 10-12 chanell), will get the ball and have a chance to run. He has all the ball skills of a five-eighth. I wonder how he’d read the play?
The only thing is O’Connor is a tremendously elusive runner and five-eighth is such a restricted position these days. The Wallabies don’t need another playmaker who tries to have a go on his own too much (eg Giteau). But five-eighth may be the spot for him.
Jameswm said | February 8th 2010 @ 1:00pm | Report comment
Nah – I reckon 12 is his spot, but he needs a 5/8 who kicks well and controls the game well (to take the pressure of JOC to do that), and is a strong tackler.
In fact Halangahu fits all that (as does Barnes).
Justin said | February 8th 2010 @ 1:18pm | Report comment
I think JOC is a natural 12. Powerful, incisive runner with excellent skills across the board. He will have to tackle at 10 or 12 so really it doesnt matter in that regard. He may get a few more at 12 but everyone is expected to do the job in defence these days. At 10 he will have less space to run and less opportunity also with flankers o him quickly. I cant wait to see him pay this year but at 10 he has so many more things to think about which can affect his natural instinct to take the game on. His kicking game is good for a 12 but not up to standard yet for a 10 either. He had a blinder at 12 last year before Deans stuffed him by playing him out of position at 15 in Tests. A terrible decision IMO.
Stay at 12 and run Bart at 10 is my view for the moment.
Jameswm said | February 8th 2010 @ 3:58pm | Report comment
Bart is at least a solid and reliable option for 10 – a good team player. What’s his punting like? We’ll find out this weekend I guess.
AndyS said | February 9th 2010 @ 1:40pm | Report comment
Hmmm, interesting though that the article omitted Mitchell’s other quote (reported by Growden) that, “Asked if O’Connor would play at No.10, Mitchell replied: ”Only in terms of development, as we are looking at James primarily at 15 and 12.””
He may wind up at 10 one day, but that day should be some time in the future and the deep end is not where he needs to be yet.