Queensland Reds should be trying to recruit a ball-carrying backrower, Eddie Jones writes

THE talk about the Reds signing James O’Connor and Karmichael Hunt is puzzling - they desperately need a ball-carrying backrower, Eddie Jones writes.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 13: Scott Higginbotham runs the ball during an Australian Wallabies captain's run at Etihad Stadium on June 13, 2014 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Robert Prezioso/Getty Images)

THE talk about the Reds signing James O’Connor and Karmichael Hunt is puzzling to me when the far larger priority, literally, is recruiting a big, ball-carrying backrower to fill the biggest void of this season.

As good a player as O’Connor is, he has no track record for making his teams win.

The Western Force, Melbourne Rebels and London Irish were low end of the table teams and the Wallabies were not appreciably improved with O’Connor in the ranks.

He is a fantastic, instinctive runner and kicks goals so he does clearly have plusses.

The Reds have enough small players which gets back to my recruitment point that they badly need some effective size.

First stop must be signing a player like South African flanker-lock Jacques Potgieter, a great import who has given NSW Waratahs a physical presence for their charge at the Super Rugby finals.

I hear the Reds strategy is to re-sign and recruit and name names at the one time.

Plenty of work needs to have been done to find the right big body.

Hunt was a great player in rugby league but will his years of AFL with the Gold Coast Suns prepare him to help the Reds win? Fullback would be his only rugby position.

This Reds squad is Ewen McKenzie’s list of players.

They continually chat about the trophy of 2011 with justified pride but it’s time to move on and develop a new team to challenge for silverware.

Richard Graham is a fine young coach with good values.

He can now recruit the players he needs and I’m sure he has been working at that behind the scenes.

In professional rugby, the latter stages of the season are full of movement, in and out, as players and clubs look to improve their situation.

As a coach, I always worked on moving on 20 per cent of the squad, 10 per cent of the top players just coming off their best and 10 per cent from the bottom rungs of the squad.

Manchester United were the kings of moving on players before their use-by date as was the great Wayne Bennett, who moved on both Wally Lewis and Glenn Lazarus from the Brisbane Broncos before their careers faded.

Players tend not to get too fazed by the movement.

It’s a fact of professional sport until it reaches a tipping point when the movement becomes a flood.

The Reds have reached that bridge with Rod Davies, Mike Harris, Dom Shipperley, Aidan Toua, Jono Owen, Albert Anae and Jonah Placid all cleaning out their lockers next month.

The drums are beating loudly that one marquee Reds player is ready to walk.

The Reds would then be dealing with a tricky flood.

Every crisis brings an opportunity and this one is for Graham to put his mark on the squad and show us some shrewd recruits.

With two games to play, Graham can draw a line in the sand, play the guys who will be there in 2015, finish strongly and have a group who come back to pre-season with renewed purpose.

In the good old days, the end of the season was celebrated with a few beers.

A couple of guys might retire and the odd player would heed his wife being sick of him being late home every Thursday and Saturday night.

Rugby life was fairly stable and comfortable with just the odd new player.

It’s a different world today.

Originally published as Queensland Reds should be trying to recruit a ball-carrying backrower, Eddie Jones writes