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Queensland Reds move forward with new captains as James O'Connor relinquishes role
By AAP
James O'Connor's flirtation with captaincy is over after the Queensland Reds' title-winning playmaker opted against returning to the role this year.
Instead livewire half Tate McDermott has been promoted to partner Liam Wright as co-captain for the new Super Rugby Pacific season beginning next month.
Wright's long-term ankle injury on the eve of last season saw O'Connor parachuted into the captaincy and flourish, the former rugby bad boy relishing the task as the Reds swept to the domestic title.
With England due to tour and the 2023 World Cup on the horizon, O'Connor opted to shed those extra duties though, the No.10 keen to re-establish himself on the international stage after Quade Cooper's fine Test resurgence while he was injured last season.
O'Connor will remain a vital cog in the Reds' strategy room but has relinquished the official leadership duties to his emerging halves partner, who at 23 has played 15 Tests and shown his potential to be a long-term Wallaby.
"It's important to recognise the job James O'Connor did last year," Reds coach Brad Thorn said.
"He was both the captain and one of our on-field drivers which was a big commitment and responsibility.
"There are more leaders within our team, plus players with emerging leadership qualities too which is great for the future growth of our program."
Captaincy could strengthen McDermott's case for a starting role at Test level, the potent ball-runner jostling for game-time with NSW Waratahs leader Jake Gordon and Brumbies and Wallabies first-choice No.9 Nic White.
"To be etched into the fabric of Queensland Rugby, in company with many former great captains of the game, is something my family and I will forever treasure," said McDermott.
"Upon reflection of my initial chat with Thorny, our job now turns to unleashing the untapped potential within our side,.
"We are fortunate to have a core group of experienced players around us who have tremendous skin in the game, and whom we will rely upon heavily to continue with the team-first approach we took into our 2021 Super Rugby AU title-winning campaign."
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Stephen Larkham, Mick Byrne, Scott Wisental, Ben Mowen, Les Kiss, Jim McKay, Rod Kafer.
There are plenty of great Australian coaches who could do a better job than Schmidt.
Go to commentsThis piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.
I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.
Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.
The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.
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