By Jim Morton
March 13th 2010 @ 5:01am
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Reds aim Ioane at wonderboy
Strike weapon Digby Ioane shapes as the blunt force Queensland will aim at Western Force wonderboy James O’Connor in Sunday’s Super 14 grudge match.
Wallabies outside centre Ioane will wear the No.13 jersey for the first time this season due mainly to the threat he will pose to Test teammate O’Connor whose small 84kg frame slots into the Force midfield for the Suncorp Stadium encounter.
Reds coach Ewen McKenzie has shown his hand by dropping an unlucky Morgan Turinui to the bench despite his impressive display in the 23-18 upset of the Chiefs in Hamilton.
McKenzie indicated Ioane’s shift from the wing may be just a one-week proposition as O’Connor will be the man to line-up defensively on him from first-phase after moving to inside centre to make way for former All Blacks five-eighth David Hill.
“We think it’s a good fit for this game,” he said. “We’ve got an idea how they want to play us but we’ve got some ideas how we want to play them.”
McKenzie made three changes to his starting lineup, with 20-year-old lock Rob Simmons displacing firebrand Adam Byrnes one to show established Reds won’t be in cruise mode in 2010.
“Just by naming the same team every week complacency can creep in,” he said. “We want to keep everyone on their toes.
“Simmo coming in to the second row is an example of that. We’re not unhappy with Adam Byrnes at all.
“He’s carried a fair workload, he’s an industrious player on the field but we have the opportunity to freshen him up a bit.
“We clearly need to become more consistent and that’s why we’re not just rolling out the same team happy with what we’ve done so far. We have to take some risks to do better.”
For Simmons, his first run-on start is a chance to test himself against Wallabies lock Nathan Sharpe, who he followed at The Southport School, just 10 years after.
In a major boost to the Reds backline, Wallabies flyer Peter Hynes (finger) joins Ioane (knee) in returning from injury.
But Luke Morahan and Brando Va’aulu have been rewarded for their efforts against the Chiefs by being picked on the wings.
Queensland — looking to end a five-match drought in Australian derbies — go in as rare favourites but aren’t underestimating the winless and injury-hit Force, especially following a 32-10 trial loss last month.
“If you do your head count they have more international players running around in their side than we have,” McKenzie said.
“While you can judge them on their final scoreline they have been quite competitive in all their games, including knocking us around pretty badly in the trials, so it won’t be a team we’ll take lightly.”
