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Reds loose forward puts his hand up to take over goalkicking duties

Harry Wilson. (Photo by Daniel Jayo/Getty Images)

The talk is, for a young No.8, Harry Wilson is a surprisingly good goalkicker.

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The Queensland Reds youngster isn’t so confident however that coach Brad Thorn would view him as the solution to the Super Rugby franchise’s kicking woes.

A miserable zero-from-four haul by the Reds with the boot last Friday was the difference as they fell 24-20 to the Crusaders in Christchurch despite scoring four tries to three against the reigning champions.

It was a bitter pill for Wilson to swallow after the 20-year-old was one of the Reds’ best against the New Zealand powerhouse.

Across the season Jock Campbell has now made just 12 of 21 efforts from the kicking tee and the Reds must be considering other options after his dismal Christchurch display.

Continue reading below…

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Wilson wouldn’t shy away from taking on the kicking duties against the Bulls at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday if asked, but he doesn’t genuinely think he’s a contender.

“I would love to get the opportunity but I think Thorney and everyone else would just tell me to be quiet,” he said.

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“I’ll keep working on it at training but.”

The news Hunter Paisami will sit out for the next month with a knee injury may allow a path back into the starting XV for proven goalkicker Bryce Hegarty.

The 27-year-old had made nine-from-nine attempts before being demoted to the bench four games ago and could come into fullback with Campbell moving to Paisami’s vacant wing position.

Whoever gets the nod for Saturday, Wilson is confident the Reds kickers will find their radar soon.

“It’s never ideal to leave the points out there but we’ve just got full trust in them to keep working hard,” he said.

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“I’ve got no doubt soon it will come good. We’ve just got to stay positive with it.”

– AAP

WATCH: The Waratahs could be set for major blow as Kurtley Beale is eyed up by French club.

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Flankly 2 hours 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?

4 Go to comments
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