'Cast offs, rejects and defectors': Why Reds vs Brumbies is rugby's gripping grudge match

It was former Queensland Reds coach John Connolly who said that the Brumbies were a perfectly balanced side…with a chip on each shoulder.

That was the wry Connolly at his best in the early days of Super Rugby in the late 1990s when the men from Canberra played with a point to prove every weekend.

Former Brumby David Giffin always has a chuckle at the “cast-offs and rejects” mentality that was a potent fuel within the early era of the Brumbies.

It was a real thing. Players like Giffin became a 1999 World Cup-winner after the Brumbies saw his worth where his home state Queensland did not.

Brett Robinson, Pat Howard and Troy Coker were others who found fresh fire with the Brumbies after careers with the Reds.

It wasn’t just a thing in the early days. Mark Chisholm, Gene Fairbanks, Daniel Heenan, Jim Williams, Jarrad Butler and many others flew or even drove from Brisbane to Canberra to set up far more productive rugby careers.

Fast forward to 2022 and tonight’s showdown between the unbeaten Brumbies and Reds at GIO Stadium.

Prop James Slipper, fullback Tom Banks and reserve back Chris Feauai-Sautia will all gain an extra burst of satisfaction with victory over the team they once played for.

The Brumbies poached Banks from the Reds for the 2017 season after he had already signed a development squad contract in Brisbane.

The Reds were dirty at the defection but the plain truth was the Brumbies valued him more and came over the top with a full contract for two-years.

For every quick-stepping try since, Banks has been a reminder of the Reds when they were fumblers not the well-grooved Super Rugby AU champions they are now.

Lukhan Salakaia-Loto of the Reds clashes with Darcy Swain of the Brumbies during the Super RugbyAU Final match last year. (Photo by Jono Searle/Getty Images)

Banks has run more metres (427) than any player in Super Rugby Pacific, scored two tries and set up several more.

His match-up against Jordan Petaia at fullback will be fascinating tonight. It’s the classic specialist No.15 against the rushed project player.

Petaia’s change of pace, his dangerous entries to the backline and his high-ball catching are first class. We don’t know yet whether he can kick his way out of a paper bag in a pressure situation. The Brumbies will surely try to find out.

Former Brumbies favourite Rod Kafer was a fullback before his inside centre days. He is fascinated by the Petaia experiment.

“Lights out, he’s the best player on the field with his size, strength and speed when it all clicks but we are in that strange zone where he is a much better player than what we see of him most weeks,” Kafer said.

“It’s the inconsistency problem. Once he irons out the errors, he’ll be incredible.

“The shuffle to fullback is not doing anything for him while he’s still working on understanding the game more. I’d have given him time to learn one position, outside centre.”

Petaia, Banks or another? Brett McKay, Harry Jones and the Sydney Morning Herald’s Iain Payten discuss the Wallabies No.15 contenders on The Roar Rugby Podcast.

There’s a classic story from 2004. The battling Reds of that time were keen on recruiting Joel Wilson, outside centre in the Brumbies’ championship team of that year.

The move fizzled at the first hurdle when the fax to Wilson was addressed with the wrong christian name. True story.

Banks is the type of rugby boomerang the Reds fear most … a Queensland-bred talent who doesn’t come back but haunts them for the Brumbies.

Neglected gems, cast-offs and poached young guns with Queensland bloodlines have a nasty habit of producing their best against their old state.

Think pacy Tim Atkinson, Jeremy Paul, Heenan and Chisholm for starters. Babinda-bred lock Darcy Swain, an old boy of Brisbane Boys’ College, may become another. He will definitely feel up for it after the pain of being in the sin bin when the Super Rugby AU final was lost on full-time at Suncorp Stadium last season.

Connolly was right about one thing. The Brumbies are perfectly balanced. In 2022, it’s an enviable balance of reliability at set pieces, the explosiveness of Rob Valetini, a canny halfback general in Nic White and a backline that purrs with telling attacks at times.

The Brumbies were stung by last year’s last-gasp loss in the Super Rugby AU final.

The former Queenslanders in the side will also take the field in Brumbies’ warpaint tonight with a little extra feeling that should never be underestimated.