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'There is no fear': Wallabies legend impressed by Reds following dominant display against Sunwolves

(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

Tim Horan is loving the Queensland Reds’ “fearless” football but says he will wait another week before judging the improved side’s Super Rugby credentials.

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The Reds put 10 tries on the Sunwolves last Saturday in a record-breaking win to break a run of three encouraging losses to start the season.

They host the in-form Sharks (3-1) on Saturday at Suncorp Stadium before a trans-Tasman trip to play last year’s champions the Crusaders in round five.

Continue reading below…

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Those teams boast some of the world’s best players, with South African backs Makazole Mapimpi and fullback Aphelele Fassi firing the Sharks past the Melbourne Rebels last week and the Highlanders the weekend before.

Queensland’s new-look halves combination of Tate McDermott and James O’Connor has impressed, while centres Hunter Paisami and Hamish Stewart have combined well and fullback Jock Campbell has flourished.

Horan, a long-time force in the centres for club and country, admitted it was a joy to watch the revamped backline in full flight but their efforts over the next fortnight would be revealing.

“There is no fear in how they’re playing; there’s an excitement about it and you can put that expansive play down to (attack coach) Jim McKay,” said Horan, whose son Alex will make his Super Rugby debut on Saturday for the Sunwolves.

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“But you’ve got to be careful. I’d say in 10 days (after they’ve played the Sharks and Crusaders), you’ll see just how well they’re going.”

Coach Brad Thorn has encouraged the side to play with freedom but Horan says that isn’t always the most-practical approach.

“If you look at any time in my career, I’m the staunch hit-up, tight guy but the (NRL’s Brisbane) Broncos we played attractively, the Crusaders, All Blacks played a great brand,” Horan told AAP.

“I love that continuity but, sometimes, you might have that dull game – just trying to win but, generally, we want to be expressing ourselves.”

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As for how they planned to break down the Sharks’ high-octane approach, Thorn was cagey.

“We’re backing ourselves to compete hard against them; they’ve been the talk of the comp,” he said.

“They’re very sharp all over the park … I just think it’s good timing (for us).

“It’s their last game (of a three-game tour) and they’ve had a fair trip away – you take your hat off to them.”

– 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?

4 Go to comments
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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
LONG READ
LONG READ England need to face a few home truths if they are to relearn that winning habit England need to face a few home truths if they are to relearn that winning habit
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