Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Samu Kerevi's Reds out to upset the improving Jaguares

Samu Kerevi. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

Their Super Rugby finals hopes may be shot, but the Queensland Reds can still restore some pride to the Australian conference with victory over the red-hot Jaguares on Saturday night.

ADVERTISEMENT

With seven wins from their past eight outings, the Jaguares have soared to second on the ladder and are on track for an historic home quarter-final in Buenos Aires.

Packed with Pumas, the Jaguares have taken down the Brumbies and Waratahs on their rampant run to leave the Reds as the last Australian team with a chance to topple the powerful Argentine outfit.

“It’something we’ve spoken about through the week, it’s almost a Test side,” Queensland skipper Samu Kerevi said at the Reds’ captain’s run on Friday.

“They’ve been playing together for the last couple of years now and they’ve a very skilful team, a very hard team to beat.

“But the challenge is what’s exciting about this weekend.”

The Reds are vowing to lift for Scott Higginbotham’s milestone 100th game for Queensland.

Kerevi is especially hungry to contribute, having been a frustrated observer watching from his lounge room as the Reds fell painfully short of a rare win in New Zealand last week against the Chiefs.

Rested as part of the Wallabies’ workload management program ahead of this year’s World Cup, Kerevi knows he will have his hands full at Suncorp Stadium marking Pumas star Jeronimo de la Fuente in a head-to-head captain’s duel.

ADVERTISEMENT

“They’ve got rapid wingers, the centres have been playing well and it’s going to be a big task for Chris (Feauai-Sautia) and I to lock down that centre combination for them,” Kerevi said.

“And also for us as well trying to get that front-foot ball and getting over the gain line, it’s going to be a tough ask.”

While in the box seat, the Jaguares aren’t home and hosed yet, with the Sharks, Bulls, Lions and Stormers all within striking distance should the South African conference leaders slip up in Brisbane with three rounds remaining.

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

F
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?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Rugby fugitive Rocky Elsom in hiding after fleeing Ireland Rugby fugitive Rocky Elsom in hiding after fleeing Ireland
Search