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A Reds flyhalf theory

Roar Guru
18th May, 2018
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Reds fullback Jono Lance reacts as he scores a try during the round six Super Rugby match between the Queensland Reds and the Bulls in Brisbane, Saturday, March 23, 2013. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
Roar Guru
18th May, 2018
159
2206 Reads

What a match the Hurricanes versus Reds versus game in Wellington on Friday night was!

The Reds stayed in touch with the 2016 Super Rugby winners and 2017 runners-up and managed to spend some time in the lead but were pipped at the post by four points towards the end of the match.

There is no shame in that against a team as classy as the Canes, who happen to be captained by my favourite All Black, TJ Perenara, who is fantastically competitive and athletic on the field but always comes across as a genuine sportsman off it.

Furthermore, a nine-try spectacle, four of them to the Reds, should have pleased the most demanding of ‘running rugby’ aficionados. For me the highlight was ‘Thor Campese’, aka Taniela Tupou, barrelling and goose-stepping defenders with gay abandon up the left wing and then sending a slick pass to Jordan Petaia to give the teenage winger his first Super Rugby try. Outstanding!

I was also encouraged by the slick move off the lineout, with flyhalf Jono Lance picking out Samu Kerevi and sending him on the train tracks through the Canes defence, with Kerevi passing it to the flying Filipe Dauganu for the finish.

This is the third game in a row that the Reds have racked up four tries, so the consistent attacking performances should give comfort to various commentators who were worried about the Reds apparent inability to score tries. Thorn is onto it.

Jono Lance

(AAP Image/Dave Hunt)

On Lance, I thought he did pretty well overall. Apart from setting up the try, he kicked a perfect six from six off the tee and made his usual sterling effort in defence, making 11 from 13 tackles.

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I noticed in one instance he appeared to have got into Beauden Barrett’s head enough that when he lined him up for a tackle, Barrett rushed a pass and sent it a mile forward with a Reds scrum resulting. Barrett is without a doubt one tough rooster, which should give an indication of how much respect these players have for a Lance tackle.

One area that Lance didn’t perform well in was his tactical kicking, which included a bomb that went straight up and a miss of the sideline on the penalty, thus putting his team under pressure. This will invariably raise criticism, with those who don’t use it as an opportunity to argue for the return of Quade Cooper to the Reds, asking why Hamish Stewart isn’t being run at ten.

The former question has been done to death, so I won’t cover it here, but a theory has occurred to me on why Stewart is being kept at 15.

After Stewart’s man-of-the-match performance against the Lions three weeks ago Thorn indicated that Lance, who had been injured, was still his first-pick flyhalf. Thorn said that Stewart still has to pay his dues, perhaps indicating that he thinks Stewart still needs some development in terms of skill and maturity before being put into the hot seat of being regular starting ten.

Hamish Stewart

(Patrick Hamilton/AFP/Getty Images)

However, my theory is that Thorn has also avoided starting Stewart because of the heat that he knew would be generated by Quade Cooper’s omission from the squad. The 2018 season was always going to be tough, with a 50/50 win loss ratio being the best that we could ever have reasonably expected, so the last thing a young prospect like Stewart would have needed would be to have been up for constant comparison to the ex-superstar flyhalf playing club rugby at Souths.

Promising NRC prospect Jake McIntyre was thrust into the Reds starting ten spot in 2016 and was eaten alive in Super Rugby, with his career taking an early exit to France. Combine the intrinsic pressure that McIntyre faced with the frustrations of the Cooper fans directed at Stewart, and we can see why Lance might have been welcome to cover the position this year.

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So realistically I think that we are likely to see Lance stay as the starting ten for the remainder of the season, with Stewart playing at fullback and getting another season of NRC under his belt before playing the role full time in 2019. That may change if Cooper decides he wants to go to another Super Rugby team and try to play well enough to command Wallabies selection for next year’s World Cup, but he is contractually entitled to stay in Brisbane playing club footy so that is really up to him.

Whoever plays at ten for the Reds, I immensely enjoyed Friday’s performance against the Canes. It has reinforced my faith that the Reds are heading in the right direction to get the results that we all want.

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