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The Reds play their first home game of the Super Rugby season tonight when they host the Cheetahs. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 7:40pm (AEDT).
Although it is their first time playing at home, the Reds haven’t had to go too far out of their way in their first two matches.
Games in Canberra and Sydney are hardly as taxing as the Cheetahs going to Melbourne from South Africa and a second week on the road to Brisbane.
The Reds were poor last week in a big loss to the Waratahs; their forward pack was pushed around and marginalised in the ruck and at the advantage line – a pair of results they cannot continue to replicate and expect to win many matches in Super Rugby.
The performance of each side’s loose forward will go a long way to determining the outcome of this match.
The impact of the back row trio of Liam Gill, Jake Schatz and Ed Quick was heavily reliant on Gill’s work to be effective.
Schatz and Quirk must be counted against a Cheetah’s back row of Peter Labuschagne, Boom Prinsloo and Phillip Van Der Walt.
In fact, the Cheetahs back row was man-handled by the Rebels for large swathes of their loss last week as well.
Shaun Venter and Johan Goosen pose an interesting halves pairing for the Reds to counter. Venter is only just taking on the full time starting roll and Goosen has unfortunately spent the last couple of seasons out injured as often as he has played.
Both players have a lot of talent, especially Goosen, but need to start putting that on the park regularly if the Cheetahs are to reach the same kind of heights as last season.
Adding the always dangerous Sarel Pretorius to the mix off the bench means there is a lot of variety and attacking options at the fulcrum of the visiting side tonight.
We all know so much about the Reds counterparts in the halves – Will Genia and Quade Cooper.
It seems these players careers are on opposite trajectories right now.
Genia needs to push himself to regain the best of his form again, and is perhaps still not fully in stride after his devastating knee injury. Different people’s bodies – and minds – heal themselves at different speeds.
Cooper is perhaps in the best stretch of form in his life. After a tumultuous couple of years, including his own injury, Cooper suddenly has more control over every aspect of his game.
He has transitioned from a mercurial fly-half into a multi-talented field general.
The jerseys numbered from six through to ten are full of high quality performers and will probably be where this match is won and lost.
Join in the comment section with your thoughts and keep up to date with the scores and commentary from 7:40pm (AEDT).
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.