After losing Tate McDermott and Fraser McReight to suspensions, the Queensland Reds have copped another blow by losing Seru Uru for up to six weeks after surgery on his thumb.
Uru, who looks likely to feature in Joe Schmidt’s maiden Wallabies squad, looks set to be joined on the sidelines by outside Josh Flook (shoulder) too.
The Wallabies hopefuls suffered the injuries during the shock 17-14 stumble across the ditch to Moana Pasifika.
The injuries and suspensions, which Les Kiss described as “not ideal”, will stretch the Reds’ depth ahead of Friday important night’s clash against the Highlanders, which is the first of three straight matches against New Zealand opposition.
Kiss is likely to shift Jordan Petaia to outside centre to cover the loss of Flook, with Mac Grealy expected to return to the wing.
Up front, Angus Blyth, who made his return via the bench last week, could start for Uru while Cormac Daly is another expected to return to the squad.
Kiss could easily promote Junior Wallabies back-rower John Bryant to replace McReight, but another option would be to shift co-captain Liam Wright to his preferred position at openside flanker.
After giving Tom Lynagh the chance to breathe and recover over the past fortnight, Kiss is also expected to recall the recently turned 21-year-old at fly-half to the starting side.
He is set to form a new-look halves pairing alongside Kelani Thomas, with McDermott to miss three matches after being charged with striking.
Despite the overhauled side, which comes off the back of three straight defeats, Kiss was far from downcast and was excited about the opportunity to test the side’s depth.
“The opportunity in this now is to give a little bit more exposure to players who were playing off the bench and other players in the program to step up too,” he said.
Asked whether his team was at a fork in the road point in their season, Kiss said the situation wasn’t quite as drastic as that.
“We had a massive surge at the beginning of the year,” he said.
“There was a great expectation that we put on ourselves, and we met that, now there’s a different expectation about how we respond to it. It’s a part of the journey.
“There’s one front-runner and that’s the Hurricanes, the other teams are within that striking distance down to the last three.
“It’ll be a tight challenge in that mid-table. This is just the reality. Seasons have their ups and downs.”
By losing to Moana Pasifika though, who had shipped 68 points to the Chiefs, 47 points to the Blues and 60 to the Brumbies over the previous three matches, the Reds once again dropped a match they should have won if they want to be seen as a title threat.
Less than a month earlier they similarly failed to show up against the Force and paid the price, as Simon Cron’s men registered their first win of the season by beating Kiss’ side.
The surprise defeats point to a consistency issue, which was a theme experienced under Brad Thorn.
But rather than head down a “cul-de-sac of doom”, Kiss said the defeats came after failing to exert pressure for long enough and wanted to look at specific, measurable errors as a reason for their defeats.
“The key errors just put away the opportunity to put on pressure on pressure,” he said.
“In both those games we had the opportunities to recover it and win it. We had two red cards on the weekend and against the Force we saw what happened away there.
“I think we grew into those games, but they’re still losses.
“We’re just careful not to go down cul-de-sacs of doom and you can’t recover from.
“We’re just trying to address the real critical things in front of us to make sure we get it right from player execution and skill focus, right through to make sure that we get our set-piece launches really positive and accurate, so we’re able to be more penetrative to give us a way to play our game.”
The Reds will name their squad to take on the Highlanders on Wednesday at 2pm AEST.
Hoy
Roar Guru
Pretty key week this week for the Reds. They need a big effort and a win this week! Going to be tough with the outs and new ins. JP at 13 is OK, so long as he doesn’t try to offload every time he touches it, and try to win the game every touch. I’d keep Wright at 6… don’t weaken two spots. Bring new youngster in. Blyth to the row!
Coker
Roar Rookie
They get Tele'a back from suspension this week, which is a big plus, and Renton, Holland Saunders, Dunshea and Tucker must all be close to taking the field again. Is there anybody else?
Coker
Roar Rookie
That's very bad luck for Uru — who's been playing well — and very bad timing for the Reds. Mitigated a little by the return of Blyth.
Reds Harry
Roar Rookie
He's been unable to stay consistently fit since his return to the Reds. When he can get on the paddock he shows he's still go plenty to offer. Unfortunately Reborn Brand JOC has several injury/broken legacy issues, a real shame.
Mirt
Roar Rookie
I thought Uru to 6 Blyth to 4 was the way to go, now with this news, it might be best to keep Wright at 6, a position he has been forced to bulk up for (tho maybe it was just normal growth) so maybe this Bryant you speak of could get a run. Just had a quick squizz at the team over the season so far 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9 have been the same starters every game, as well as Flook at 13. That’s almost half the team being a constant! This week we get new selections at 4, 7, 9 & 13. We weren’t able to get consistency with that consistency, so maybe needed change is being forced on Kiss…. but I don’t think McReight and Flook are that needed change. At least there shouldn’t be any soft c ck co-captaincy palaver going on. And I believe that “team culture” should strip the captaincy of McDermott for the remainder of the season. Enough of the committees already.
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
Then it must be remembered the Landers have injury problems as well with quite a few players out. So now seemingly it’s a level playing field!
Adsa
Roar Rookie
A bit for Kiss to consider when putting the 23 together. Do you keep Liam Wright at blindside or give Bryant a start? Is Paisami and Petaia a good centre combo or is Petaia best to stay on the wing and Taj Annan starts in the centres? Connor Anersen or Joe Brial to come into the 23 in the backrow?
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
Could explain why a guy with very good hands had such a mare. Good call.
Old school rugby
Roar Rookie
The Reds downfall has primarily been their roster with so many young development players rather than experienced SR players for depth. Journeymen become important when there are injuries.
TJ-Go Force!
Roar Rookie
Seru is a monster loss. He is a very tidy player. Hard to replace.
Brian
Roar Rookie
OK, so whats happened with James O' Conner, he was supposed to be back from injury after round 3.
savant
Roar Rookie
The reds have to get back to the way they played in the early part of the season. Passing. Keep passing. Stay alive and get second touches but keep passing. They don’t have the physical grunt to play static football. Sides now go off their feet against them and slow the ball at rucks which forces them to play one out collision rugby which they don’t have the cattle for. They will miss McReight most of all. He hits up to 30 attacking rucks a game and maintains possession which in turn allows the passing game. If they can’t get their offensive rucks right, they will probably lose all the kiwi games.
Tez
Roar Rookie
I might just pick the Landers this weekend
K.F.T.D.
Roar Rookie
I commented on Uru and 4 dropped balls in the first half, however, I don’t know when he broke his thumb. It has happened to me, and you don’t realise that you don’t have control over your hand if that has happened. So my apologies if that is what happened to him early on. Bennett’s fracture. Common amongst boxers. Apologies Uru.