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'There is no fear': Wallabies legend impressed by Reds following dominant display against Sunwolves
By Online Editors
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.
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.
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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.
"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."
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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Latest Comments
Turn it up. Give me your john A game would ya!
Go to commentsI didn't really get the should tone from it, but maybe because I was just reading it as my own thoughts.
What I read it as was examples of how they played well enough in every game to be able to win it.
Yeah I dunno if Ben wouldn't see it that way (someone else would for sure need to point it out to him though), I'm more in the Ben not appreciating that those close losses werent one off scenarios camp. Sure you can look at dubious decisions causing them to have to play with 14 or 13 men at the death as viable reasons but even in the games they won without such difficulties they made a real struggle of it (compared to how good some of their first half play was). This kind of article where you trying to point out the 3 losses really would most likely have been wins only really makes sense/works when your other performances make those 3 games (or endings) stand out.
There might have been a sentence here and there to ensure some good comment numbers but when he's signing off the article by saying things like ..
and..
I don't really see it. Always making sure people are upto date with the SH standing/perspective! NZ went through some tough times with so many different perspectives and reasons why, but then it was.. amusing how.. behind everyone was once they turned a corner. More of these 'unfortunate' results returned against SA and France at the start of the RWC which made it extra tasty to catch other teams out when they did bring it. So that created some 'conscious' perspective that I just kept going and sharing re thoughts on similar predicaments of other teams, I had been really confident that Wallabies displays vs NZ were real, that the Argentines can backup their thing against Aus and SA (and so obviously the rest), and current one is that England are actually consistent and improving with their attack (which everyone should get onboard with), and I'm expecting a more dominant display against Japan (even though they should have more of their experienced internationals for this one) that highlights further growth from July. 👍
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