Fraser McReight to finally make his debut for Queensland Reds

The Junior Wallabies skipper finally gets his run-on start against Australia’s World Cup captain.

Junior Wallabies skipper Fraser McReight is set to make his run-on debut for the Reds against the Waratahs. Picture: Getty Images

It was always intended that Fraser McReight would make his Queensland Reds starting debut in the opening match of the season, and that is precisely what he will do on Friday night against NSW Waratahs at Suncorp Stadium. Trouble is, the whole process is running five months behind schedule.

There was always going to be some pomp around McReight’s first run-on performance.

He made three appearances off the bench last year but as captain of the Junior Wallabies side that came within a point of winning the Under 20 World Cup in Argentina a year ago, he always shaped as a Test player of the very near future.

Super Rugby returns! Watch every game of Super Rugby AU and Super Rugby Aotearoa Live & On-Demand on Kayo. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly

So it came as a massive disappointment to his many fans when he tore ligaments in his thumb in the days leading up to the Reds’ opening fixture of the 2020 season, against the Brumbies in Canberra on January 31.

That kept him on ice until the Reds’ first home match, against the Sunwolves at Suncorp on February 22.

By that stage, the Queensland back-row was pretty well established, with Liam Wright captaining the side from open side flanker, Lukhan Salakai-Loto at blindside flanker and former Under 20s teammate Harry Wilson emerging as one of the finds of the season at No.8.

McReight had to fit in where he could off the bench, sometimes coming on to replace Wright, sometimes another backrower Angus Scott-Young. And that’s how the situation remained until the COVID-19 pandemic brought proceedings to a halt on March 15.

That forced rugby to press the reset button and the season begins all over again, as the Australian-only product dubbed Super Rugby AU. And this time McReight is ready to go.

He will need to be, given that he will be marking the Wallabies’ World Cup captain, Michael Hooper. No longer is Hooper the NSW captain – at his own request – but he remains very much a leader in a young Waratahs side.

In their last 11 encounters with Queensland, the Waratahs have never lost under Hooper’s captaincy but there is a feeling – that extends right down to the fresh haircuts in the home team’s ranks – that the Reds might be ready to take some measure of revenge for years of humiliation. The bookies think so, with Queensland at $1.32 and the Tahs at $3.40.

In his three previous seasons with the Reds, from 2015-17, five-eighth James O’Connor never experienced a win over the Tahs and indeed more than once was on the receiving side of a thrashing.

But now, two days inside his 30th birthday, he has the opportunity to exorcise a few ghosts.

When the five-eighth duties were thrust at him earlier this season, he felt the same rush of anxiety when then Wallabies coach Robbie Deans asked him to learn the job on the run as playmaker against the British and Irish Lions in 2013.

“I knew it was the right thing to do but I didn’t know how I would perform at 10 because I hadn’t really done it in five years and I had never mastered it,” O’Connor admitted.

“But now I feel very comfortable there and I’m enjoying it. There are elements that I still am not world-class at but there are things that I do make by own and I feel like I am helping unlock this team’s ability. I’m enjoying being there and it is a challenge but that’s why you play the game.”

Opposing him will be Will Harrison, another product of the Under 20 side, who was just beginning to put his stamp on the NSW side when the shutdown occurred.

He will have a lot to keep his eye on tonight, with the Waratahs fielding newcomers in virtually every position. Even the youngest player in last year’s backline, outside centre Alex Newsome, has now become the oldest this year, so he will not have much by way of experience around him.

Harrison noted this week that the 50-22 law had caught his eye but it may well be that he taps into the added freedom to kick inside the opposing 22.

“Hopefully it quickens the game up,” Harrison said.

That said, this is a game with a 138-year history and there is no way the opposing forward packs are going to allow the backs to have all the fun.

With Angus Bell and Harry Johnson-Holmes at prop for NSW, against Taniela Tupou and Harry Hoopert for the Reds, it emphasises how the dark arts of scrummaging are being mastered these days by players who would once have been dismissed as pups.