Queensland Reds v Force: James O’Connor to play first home game in 13 years

The Queensland Reds will play their first Super Rugby match on the Gold Coast in team history when they take on the Western Force on Friday night.

Gold Coast Rugby Union player James O’Connor is returning to Queensland to be close to family on the Gold Coast after recently signing with the St.George Queensland Reds. After a rocky few years he is returning to his roots to reinvent himself. Picture: Jerad Williams

The Queensland Reds will play their first Super Rugby match on the Gold Coast in team history when they take on the Western Force on Friday night.

For Reds flyhalf and Gold Coast local James O’Connor Friday’s homecoming clash will be all the more special because it has been 13 years in the making.

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O’Connor was a Benowa State School student with dreams of following his hero and Runaway Bay Seagulls halfback Tim Smith to the Parramatta Eels when rugby came knocking, via a boarding school scholarship to Nudgee College in Brisbane.

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - JULY 03: James O'Connor of the Reds attempts to break away from the defence during the round 1 Super Rugby AU match between the Queensland Reds and the New South Wales Waratahs at Suncorp Stadium on July 03, 2020 in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

In 2007 O’Connor returned to the Coast for a schoolboy clash against The Southport School, going head-to-head with a young playmaker named Jono Lance before shipping off to join the Western Force.

On Friday night O’Connor will play his first true home game since, against the club who set him on his Wallabies journey and his old schoolboy foe Lance, now the Force flyhalf.

O’Connor, 30, recognises the opportunity COVID-19 has created with the Force’s temporary relocation to Queensland opening the door for his first home game in 13 years.

“Even when I went overseas the Gold Coast has always been home,” the 52-cap Wallaby said.

“I’ve always had my place down here where I live for the majority of the week.

“I’ll have my brothers and a few mates from school who still live down here coming out to this one.

“I won’t be able to see them because of the COVID bubble but it will be special to play in front of them.”

O’Connor’s return to the Gold Coast will take place just one suburb over from where he played his junior football for the Burleigh Bears in rugby league.

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - JULY 17: James O'Connor of the Reds looks to take on the defence during the round three Super Rugby AU match between the Reds and Force at Suncorp Stadium on July 17, 2020 in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

“I lived in Runaway Bay but I always played for Burleigh until I moved up to Nudgee,” he said.

“I had actually signed with Parramatta but the last two years of high school I was playing union and loved it so I made the decision to play rugby instead.

“The Reds came in with a deal but they had Berrick Barnes and Quade Cooper, so when the Force came in with an offer I moved there instead.”

To line up against the club who made him the youngest Super Rugby player in history in 2008 will add significance to the occasion for the Gold Coast’s most famous rugby export.