Ayumu Goromaru to draw big crowd for Reds’ match with Sunwolves

Blockbusting Reds centre Samu Kerevi will be given until the last moment to prove himself fit to play the Sunwolves.

The Reds’ Ayumu Goromaru has attracted tour groups from Japan for the match against the Sunwolves.

Blockbusting centre Samu Kerevi will be given until the last possible moment to prove himself fit for Queensland’s historic clash with the Sunwolves at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday afternoon — but that’s not the reason the biggest crowd of the Reds’ season is expected.

Season after season, Queensland’s biggest drawcard is the interstate match against NSW. Even this year, with the Reds not having won a match at that stage, their clash with the Waratahs drew 17,247 loyal fans.

Sadly, though the Reds smashed the opposition up front, their inability to exploit their dominance led to the Waratahs escaping with a 15-13 victory. It would hardly seem that the Sunwolves, who have managed only a win and a draw in their debut season, would command a crowd to rival that but such is the pulling power of Ayumu Goromaru in Japan that tour groups are making the pilgrimage to Brisbane to see him play against the Japanese side.

A dedicated band of Japanese media followed him to Ballymore and in recent months have made it their home, ensuring no press conference ever goes by without a question about Goromaru. Reds jerseys are selling like hotcakes in Tokyo and so close has the relationship between Queensland and Japan become that naming-rights sponsor, St George, made a donation on Tuesday of $5000 to the Japanese earthquake appeal.

As it happened, the donation was announced within hours of a 5.6-magnitude tremor hitting Tokyo. The donation was instead aimed at ongoing relief work in the Kumamoto region which suffered a series of earthquakes in April, but in Japan it was received as a further sign of Queensland’s timely goodwill.

At least the Japanese fans coming to the match can expect to see Goromaru in action for a goodly portion of it. Regular fullback Karmichael Hunt has not recovered from the groin injury that kept him out of last weekend’s match with the Hurricanes.

Cadeyrn Neville, who started the season with a run of seven matches in the second row, is expected to make his way back at the expense of Tom Matwijow, who then took over from him. But otherwise, the Reds selection is stable — apart from Kerevi.

He has not played since breaking his thumb against the Cheetahs and he was conspicuous by his absence as the Reds struggled to break the line against the Crusaders and Hurricanes.

There is no question that co-coaches Matt O’Connor and Nick Stiles want him to play against the Sunwolves but with the Tests against England now only three weeks away, they don’t want to run the risk of him re-injuring his thumb.

“He’s a work in progress,” said O’Connor. “He’s certainly keen to play but we’ve also got to weigh that up against the risk of him being hurt again.”

Should Kerevi not be able to fill the 13 jersey, it would not be the catastrophe it once was, with Campbell Magnay overcoming a very shaky start against the Crusaders to play very positively in the past two matches.

“We’d be quite happy to go with him again,” said O’Connor. “He has demonstrated that he is not out of his depth and he could well become a very important part of this squad moving forward.”

Indeed, if Kerevi is ruled fit to play, it would not have surprised had the selectors found room for Magnay as a winger, which was the position he filled when he came into the side last year for half a dozen matches. “But he’s not ­really a winger and inexperience at this level can be pretty cruel. Better than he returns to the Under 20 program and contribute there. He’ll get his chance again.”