Force recruit All Black for Super Rugby

The Western Force are likely to unleash a member of the 2011 World Cup winning All Blacks side on Friday.

Former All Black Richard Kahui is set to return to Super Rugby with the Force Picture: AFP

The Western Force are likely to unleash a member of the 2011 World Cup winning All Blacks side in Friday’s Super Rugby AU clash at Suncorp Stadium and the question now is whether Queensland will meet fire with fire and do precisely the same.

The Force on Tuesday revealed the starting winger from 2011, Richard Kahui, 35, had come on board with the team in the Hunter Valley after returning to Australia from Japan following the cancellation of the Top League season. “He’ll definitely come into contention for the starting side,” said coach Tim Sampson.

Meanwhile, the seemingly preposterous possibility of the Reds countering the Kahui move by installing the player who wore the “four” jersey for the All Blacks that day – Queensland coach Brad Thorn – was being debated in the halls of Ballymore.

It can’t surely have been a serious conversation, not with Thorn having celebrated his 45th birthday in February. But the Reds’ second-row situation – already dire following the loss of Izack Rodda and Harry Hockings to overseas clubs this season – lurched into desperate on Tuesday afternoon with news that Angus Blyth had sustained a minor shoulder injury against the Rebels last Friday.

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With the Reds having a bye after this match, it is highly unlikely they will risk him this week but that almost certainly means they will be forced to use a specialist backrower, Angus Scott-Young playing alongside another converted backrower Lukhan Salakaia-Loto in the second-row on Friday.

Thorn regularly joins in contact sessions with the Reds and he admitted last month that just before he drifts off to sleep he indulges his dream of playing again. If everyone else fell over, Thorn said, he might consider a comeback. But then he admitted his wife would ridicule him and that seemed to be the end of that.

The Reds lineout is in desperate need of repair, with captain Liam Wright admitting that Queensland at one point against the Melbourne Rebels had lost five in quick succession. “We need to be a lot better in that regard against the Force,” he said.

The Reds weren’t prepared to take the risks required to win their match at Brookvale Oval on Friday but they will be up against a Force side that will be given precise instructions by Sampson before the match: Be brave!

“We’ve got to adapt to how the referee is influencing the game,” Sampson said after conducting the review of the Waratahs game on Saturday. “We got caught offside a few times. But the other thing we learned was that we have to be brave as well. We got caught up in the kicking duels, which is not the way we train.”

Meanwhile, rising Brumbies winger Tom Wright has put speculation that he might be enticed back to rugby league if Rugby Australia has trouble honouring its player contracts later this year down to “a slow news day”. As far as he is concerned, his five NRL games with Manly as in the past and the only things that matter now are helping the Brumbies do well and performing well enough to earn a Wallabies jersey.

“Since I was a young kid, along with my teammates, the gold jersey is something that we all aspired to do at an individual level,” Wright said on Tuesday. “We have goals as a team, obviously week to week winning and in the end walking away with the championship. But the gold jersey is up there in terms of individual accolades and that comes off the back of playing well as a team.”

Virtually every member of the Brumbies backline, from young five-eighth Noah Lolesio to Tom Banks at fullback must be figuring in Dave Rennie’s thinking, but Wright especially must be forcing his way to the front of the Wallabies coach’s mind. He had been in danger of slipping into an allrounders’ role but Australia is already well served in that department with Reece Hodge, but as this season was approaching Wright decided to bite the bullet. He approached Brumbies coach Dan McKellar and asked to be considered purely as a winger.

“I could see it as an opportunity, not just for the Brumbies but at the national level,” said the 22-year-old.

His skills – especially his dazzling step – could easily have worked in the centres but Wright is demonstrating that his evasive talents, backed up by blinding speed, are even more effective on the wing. And as he becomes more comfortable with the position, his value to the Brumbies – and potentially to the Wallabies – will become even greater.