The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

Douglas and Houston returning to Reds adds more intrigue for Chieka

29th June, 2016
Advertisement
Michael Cheika and Stephen Moore will not win the grand slam this time around.
Roar Pro
29th June, 2016
25
1287 Reads

It will not be surprising to see Michael Cheika braving the Canberra chill to have a close look at a pair of Queensland Reds reserves this Friday night.

Kane Douglas makes a long awaited return from his World Cup Final knee injury, while Leroy Houston will begin to state his case for inclusion in the Wallabies line-up since coming back to Queensland from the UK.

Both players will most likely feature in the Rugby Championship at some stage, as it could be argued that their respective positions have been areas of perceived weakness during the England series.

For Michael Cheika, Kane Douglas brings some much needed size, impact and mongrel to the Wallabies second row.

While Rory Arnold and Adam Coleman showed glimpses of a bright future for Wallabies lock, a powerful player of Douglas’ composition would surely have added some needed muscle during the series. Sadly his cover of James Horwill was also slightly off the boil, possibly coming off an arduous European season and looking a bit fatigued.

With injuries to Ben McCalman and Dave Pocock, along with the waning impact of Wycliff Palu, if Houston can show glimpses of the line-bending force he has shown for Bath he has to come into contention for the Wallaby No 8 spot.

While Sean McMahon was gallant in his attempt to fill the important backrow spot, Cheika will surely look at other options for the gruelling Rugby Championship programme in late August.

From the icy sidelines in Canberra, Cheika will then shift focus to Tokyo where the Waratahs take on the Sunwolves. It will be perhaps an ideal game the NSW to blow some post Cook Cup cobwebs away, but also a potential danger game against unpredictable opponents.

Advertisement

Saturday night sees two more Wallaby contenders returning with Mike Harris and Laurie Weekes back in the mix for the Rebels against the Stormers. The Force round out the weekend for the Australian teams with their South African clash against the Cheetahs.

All in all, even if only the Brumbies and Waratahs are realistically still in this year’s Super Rugby race, the intrigue that other Australian teams will bring to Michael Cheika’s selection table should be well worth watching. No doubt we will all have much to talk about.

close