Veteran Queensland forward Van Humphries has warned the young Reds they face a tougher task in 2011 now they no longer fly under the Super Rugby radar.
Queensland were the feel-good success story of 2010 when they took the Super 14 by storm with a razzle-dazzle attacking game and went within one win of a shock semi-final finish.
At 35, Humphries remains more than a decade older than two-thirds of a Reds squad which will be more experienced and confident this season.
But the towering lock predicted wins would become more difficult to come by as rivals prepare better for the former battlers.
“I think it will be harder,” he said. “I don’t think teams will underestimate us as they did last year.
“We showed teams from third, fourth round in last year that we could play consistent football throughout the season.
“I think a lot of teams will be doing more analysis on us and we’ll have to take the next step up to continue to improve and look to push for that top six.”
The Reds, who beat three of the top four teams in 2010, finished the competition in fifth place and would have qualified for the play-offs if the new six-team concept had been introduced instead of delayed.
Humphries, who toured Europe with the Wallabies in November, will have his own sizeable challenge in keeping his starting berth in the second row.
The return from a knee reconstruction of skipper James Horwill, the emergence of Test rookie Rob Simmons and the evergreen Radike Samo’s pre-season efforts have put the heat on Humphries.
“There’s four guys for two spots but hopefully (coach) Ewen (McKenzie) chooses to play those guys (Horwill and Samo) at No.6 at some stages,” he smiled.
Harry
Guest
Hope Link and the trainers are getting the likes of Houston, Holmes, Samo very fit. In previous years the Reds have not been as fit as they should be for professional athletes at the start of the season. Braid is the big loss and I hope someone will emerge to claim the number 7 position ... Tomiki, Gill (probably still needs another couple of years, great prospect though), Robinson ... all a chance. Also Weeks at tighthead although with Slipper, Sheperdson and Holmes we should have that covered.
Ben
Guest
Reds are going to be very interesting this year, especially some of their young forwards......I am very keen to see Jake Shatz get time, as well as Liam Gill and who i think is the most natural No8 in the country Leroy H.
Sportfreak
Guest
Cmon tahs! Yay rugby
Wall-Nut
Guest
Some sense coming from Darwin Stubbie, has he seen the light? -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.
Darwin Stubbie
Guest
"The Reds .... finished the competition in fifth place and would have qualified for the play-offs if the new six-team concept had been introduced instead of delayed" - huh ?
AJ
Guest
Looking forward to seeing what they have up their sleeve this year.Apart from Dan Braid and maybe Weeks I think they have strengthened the squad through retaining alot of younger players who are now a year older and hopefully selecting the best rookies from the Qld system.No.7 is a problem but other positions are looking good.The backs ....they will be difficult to deal with. The obvious "must" for them is to improve the shocking run of losses to the Waratahs(2004) and the Brumbies(forever).Of those four games I would guess they must aim to win three or they wont make the finals.