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Reds consider replicating 'Pooper' flanker role as two young captains jostle for starting spots

(Photo by Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images)

It’s all about the ability to adapt says captain Liam Wright as the Queensland Reds prepare for the return of Fraser McReight.

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Wallabies contender Wright has excelled in the No.7 for the Reds in three promising performances that have all ended in losses to start the 2020 Super Rugby season.

Junior Wallabies captain McReight is back from a thumb injury for the first time this season and will start from the bench against the Sunwolves on Saturday.

Continue reading below…

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Like Wright the 21-year-old is a specialist openside flanker but the captain insists they can share the field – just as Wallabies flanking pair David Pocock and Michael Hooper have done in recent years.

“Hopefully not, I’m liking being on the field most of the time,” Wright said when asked if McReight’s return meant a guaranteed substitution for the captain.

“It’ll be about reading how it’s going and when he comes on we’ll adapt and slide around.

“We’ve practised in all situations, (whether) he comes on for me, (No.8) Harry (Wilson) or (No.6) Lukhan (Salakaia-Loto).

“Everyone’s got that skill set.”

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The Reds failed to react to a change of tack by the Jaguares last weekend, and that ability to adapt could be crucial for the Reds against the Sunwolves.

After a first half in Argentina that Wright described as easily the side’s best during his time at the club, they were schooled by their host’s rolling maul after the break and unable to respond to four second-half tries.

“We came out saying ‘more of the same’, where the Jaguares came out with a distinctly different game plan,” he said.

“The Sunwolves are quite an unpredictable team; if we get a few things out of the box from them we’ll have to adapt pretty quickly.”

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The winless Reds are fourth in the five-team Australian conference with just two bonus points from their first three rounds.

“Knowing we could’ve been 3-0 is disappointing and frustrating, but we’ve shown what we could do,” Wright said.

“The feeling is we’re really close to that awesome performance and once we get a win it reminds us how we do it. You get used to winning eventually so it’ll tick us over to a few more wins pretty quickly.”

– AAP

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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