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Reds drop Hamish Stewart over 'internal' discipline issue

Hamish Stewart of the Reds. (Photo by Dianne Manson/Getty Images)

Hamish Stewart has a steep climb ahead of him to regain his Queensland Reds starting berth after coach Brad Thorn revealed he was dropped from a star-studded backline to face the Brumbies because of a discipline issue.

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The No.12 had finally found his place in the Reds’ set-up last season after being tried at No.10 and fullback, defending strongly and complementing James O’Connor with his hard-edged, versatile skill set.

Despite that, Stewart faced intense competition for a spot with the arrival of winger Suliasi Vunivalu from the NRL in 2021, who will start for the first time on Saturday in a move that will shift Jordan Petaia into the centres at Stewart’s expense.

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Brad Thorn pre-match Interview – Reds v Brumbies

Video Spacer

Brad Thorn pre-match Interview – Reds v Brumbies

But Stewart did himself no favours, understood to have reported for a rehabilitation session after their win over the Rebels a fortnight ago in an unfit state and displayed a general tardiness at training.

Junior Wallabies centre Josh Flook has been added to the bench with Stewart set to play clu b rugby this weekend.

“It was around a discipline issue internally about our standards, but it’s allowed us to see that Wallaby combination together and a guy we rate very highly, Josh Flook, to be named,” Thorn explained.

“Hamish we rate highly (but) never open the door at this level for someone else, that’d be my thoughts.

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“Hamish is a great guy, he’ll be back involved but you don’t want to give guys an opportunity – that’s competitive rugby.”

With winger Filipo Daugunu, halfback Tate McDermott and O’Connor all playing Test rugby late last year it’s a backline Thorn admits packs a serious punch.

But the dual international wants to see results after error-riddled wins over the Melbourne Rebels and the NSW Waratahs to begin the season.

He added that he hoped to see a progression in both Paisami and Petaia’s kicking and passing game to complement their strong reputation as ball carriers.

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“There’s some specimens there,” Thorn said.

“Suli is continuing his learning and thi s will be another step and that centre combination we saw a touch of in the Test series.

“You can have names on paper but it’s how they work together.

“So we’ll keep pretty grounded there, let’s see some actions around how we play because like I said we haven’t been happy.”

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J
JW 1 hour ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

This piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.


I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.


Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.


The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.

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