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Queensland Reds take on Wellington Hurricanes at Suncorp Stadium tonight in a game which should provide a solid display of running rugby as both teams love a good canter on a Friday night. Join us tonight from 9.20pm AEDT for live scores
Last week the Reds managed to hold out the Waratahs, winning in awkward fashion 25-17. This win extended their record at Suncorp Stadium to an absurd 22 from 25 games.
They are hard to beat at home, even when playing badly.
The Reds never really got going against the Tahs. Quade Cooper was introspective again and the team is still missing a bit of oomph with key players yet to return from injury – captain James Horwill is due back next week.
Reds fullback Mike Harris was lucky not to be sent from the field as he delivered Adam Ashley-Cooper a shoulder charge which reduced the Waratah to a spasmodic mess.
In fact a pair of pretty average performances this year has been enough to see Harris demoted to the bench and replaced with fullback Aidan Toua.
Ewen McKenzie said of the replacement, “We have strong thoughts about how the game is going to be played and feel that Aidan really has something to offer in this match from fullback.”
I guess that means he’s going to have to score a lot of tries.
Adding to these concerns, their lead up to this game has been knocked around by the upcoming Lions tour, as only two training sessions were available.
Another notable change sees Radike Samo back from injury as he takes his place on the bench.
In other news, Scott Higginbotham must now be a distant memory for Reds fans as 21-year-old Eddie Quirk came of age with a world class performance at blindside flanker against the Tahs. It will be interesting to see how he fares against Victor Vito.
Now on to the Hurricanes, a team that loves to play the Reds.
They’ve won 11 out of 16 against the Queenslanders and will want to sneak in a few 110m tries from Julian Savea and Andre Taylor; see if they can’t upset a few locals.
Despite a strong performance last week they went down 20-34 against scary-good opposition in the Blues.
Coach Mark Hammett will have plenty of positives to take from this game, including Beauden Barrett’s boot keeping their team in the contest.
Defence, however, was no such positive as they conceded 14 clean breaks and missed 26 tackles.
Expect a high scoring match.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.