Queensland Reds starting to show signs of turning the corner

Taniela Tupou and Lukan Tui’s performance against the Brumbies suggests a corner might finally have been turned for the Reds.

Queensland’s Taniela Tupou on the rampage against the Brumbies

The performances of Taniela Tupou and Lukan Tui against the Brumbies in Canberra on Friday — one making his Queensland debut, the other starting for the first time in Super Rugby — suggests a corner might finally have been turned for the Reds.

It was the big-name players returning via the bench, World Cup final second-rower Kane Douglas and Wallabies squad No 8 Leroy Houston who attracted most attention prior to the match, but both were upstaged by the youngsters having their first real exposure to Super Rugby in this country.

Tui had a taste of playing at that level on the Reds tour of South Africa this season when he was on at the death against the Bulls in Loftus Versfeld but he was launched with full fanfare against the Brumbies and lived up to co-coach Nick Stiles’ highest hopes for him.

“We just want to give him more game time,” said Stiles. “It was disappointing that Rob Simmons got injured but sometimes with injuries comes opportunity and that’s what we got with Lukan.

“If Simmo hadn’t been injured, we probably would have started with Cadeyrn, Douglas and Simmo as a combination but I was stoked we could give him time. I have massive wraps on him and you could see how he carried the ball and he can jump for a big man so he’s much more an allround package compared to some other big units.”

Tupou, nicknamed the Tongan Thor, has been a project player since Quade Cooper persuaded him to join the Reds in 2014 and he has been as quietly nurtured by Stiles as it is ever possible to be for a player who attracted fans in their thousands to watch action clips of him on YouTube.

He fell for a rookie error when the Brumbies wheeled the first scrum he packed into at tighthead and conceded a penalty, but then he settled quickly into the game, ran powerfully and on a good line, defended powerfully and finished off the match with a well-taken try close to the line. It was as promising a debut as he could have imagined.

Certainly there is no rush in bringing him on, with the Reds’ most capped player, Greg Holmes having a mortgage on the No 3 jersey, but he has only two more matches remaining in his Queensland career and will head to Exeter knowing the Reds scrum is in good shape.

Both players give Reds fans great hope that, aside from veterans Stephen Moore, George Smith, Douglas and, quite possibly, Cooper boosting the ranks next, there is also a healthy crop of outstanding youngsters queuing up to make their way through.

There are, however, still two games to negotiate this season, one of them against the Chiefs who were momentarily on top of the ladder until the unlikely Lions — one of the South African teams that has played the full quota of New Zealand teams this season — gained a bonus point victory over the Sharks to move one point clear on 47 points.

Five-eighth Jake McIntyre is unlikely to be fit, though he will have a scan on his injured ankle today, leaving Duncan Paia’aua as the last man standing at five-eighth, unless the Reds want to reactivate Wallabies halfback Nick Frisby as a 10.