Queensland Reds star James O’Connor is about to overlook the opening three weeks of the Super Rugby Pacific season with a hamstring damage.
Reds coach Les Kiss stated O’Connor had been “flying” within the pre-season earlier than the setback.
It means the veteran of 64 Test look gained’t play within the Reds’ season-opening battle with arch-rivals NSW on Saturday evening at Suncorp Stadium, as effectively a minimum of two extra video games.
“He’s three weeks away, maybe four,” Kiss stated on Monday.
“You don’t like losing people like James. He was flying, he was going extremely well, but I’ve said it from day one, we’ve got four good options (at fly-half) and all the other options are playing well.”
The three gamers in competition to put on Queensland’s No.10 jersey this weekend are Tom Lynagh, Lawson Creighton and 19-year-old Junior Wallaby Harry McLaughlin-Phillips.
“All the 10s that are there … they don’t get flustered too easily,” Kiss stated.
“It’s a competitive position, like other positions are as well. It’s a nice situation to have.
“The whole squad’s got competitive, right across the positions. That’s what I love about the team at the moment.”
Kiss stated he would have “no reservations” about beginning with McLaughlin-Phillips if he thought-about that to be the best choice for the Reds.
“The only way you get experience is to play, and I like my players to play as much as possible,” he stated.
“The age of a guy or the experience of a guy is not the major concern. It’s about the collective.
“I do like to make sure that if I put a young guy in, that they’ve got support structures around them and experience in the right positions to support him.”
Kiss, a former Queensland State of Origin rugby league winger, stated the interstate rivalry with NSW went “bone deep”.
“It’s in my blood. From day one, I just wanted to put a maroon jersey on. Now I’ve got a chance to wear a maroon jersey in a different way,” he stated.
“It is the biggest rivalry in the country … and that’s in any form of sport.
“It goes bone deep and it matters, and if someone comes to your ground, you’ve got to make it personal.
“I know they’ll make it personal. We just expect they’re going to come at us, so from our perspective, it’s important that we represent our jersey well, represent our fans well. and represent the way that we’ve prepared and our game well.
“We need to make sure we’re ready.”
Source: www.news.com.au
