Super Rugby 2016: Kerevi happy to hang around for Reds revival

Queensland Reds have locked in their strike weapon Samu Kerevi for another two years.

Queensland centre Samu Kerevi: ‘I believe in the group, I believe in the coaching staff and Queensland as a whole’ Picture: Darren England.

The Queensland Reds locked in their strike weapon, Samu Kerevi, for another two years yesterday and then received another significant boost from him — he’s likely to start this afternoon against the Sunwolves at Suncorp Stadium.

It’s hard to overstate Kerevi’s importance in the underper­forming Reds set-up. After three miserable seasons in which they have won only 11 matches, the Reds are assembling a powerful pack in 2017, with Stephen Moore and Kane Douglas coming in to reinforce an already powerful eight. But they need backs who can break the line and Kerevi statistically is one of the best at that in the Super Rugby competition.

He is fifth on defenders beaten (35), third for carries (120) and ­seventh for metres gained (628), despite having sat out the last two games. Indeed, take out back-three players and he is the biggest gainer of territory in the comp­etition. And not surprisingly, given those numbers, he also is the Reds’ joint leading tryscorer this year.

He became the player the Reds had to keep and they fought hard for him, with the Melbourne Rebels making a huge play for him, as did the Brumbies as they searched for a centre to take the place of Europe-bound Matt Toomua next year.

“I believe in the group, I believe in the coaching staff and Queensland as a whole,” Kerevi said. “For us to stick together for a long ­period, it’s going to work out in the end.”

The Reds can string three home wins together for the first time since 2013 if they can win this afternoon, and although that sequence has been broken by two comprehensive away losses to the Crusaders and Hurricanes in the past two week, the Reds are at the point where they have to take whatever gains they can find.

There were sighs all round when Kerevi, who missed the two matches in New Zealand because of a broken thumb, came through the captain’s run yesterday. A final decision won’t be made until just before kick-off but skipper James Slipper admitted it would give a huge fillip to the team if he played.

“We’re giving him until the last minute,” Slipper said. “He’s one of those players that we’d love to have out there. He really puts his body on the line. For him to play would be great but we’ve got a lot of confidence in Campbell (Magnay) as well.”

The Sunwolves make their way to Brisbane having lost all three away games this season, in the process conceding 171 points — 57 points per match — though admittedly a 92-17 blowout against the Cheetahs accounted for much of that. But they have tightened up their defence and in their last match held the Stormers, who themselves have the best defence in Super Rugby, to a 17-all draw.

Slipper insists the Reds have definitely not sold the Japanese side short. Indeed, given that they are in their 20th season of Super Rugby to the Sunwolves’ first, it’s more than a little embarrassing that they have only a single win more than their opponents today.

“They do enjoy throwing the ball around and it’s going to be a matter of who executes on the day,”Slipper said.

No prizes for guessing where the Reds will attack them — in the set pieces. Queensland are the only side in Super Rugby averaging above 90 per cent efficiency in both scrum and lineout and hooker Andrew Ready, who was rewarded for an outstanding season to date by being called into a Wallabies ­assembly last week, made no secret that the Reds intend to exploit that.

“We’re going to scrum for time,” Ready said. “If they want to leave the ball in there, we’ll come at them.”

Chances are that’s the last thing the Sunwolves will do, especially with former Rebel Shota Horie at hooker. He was also in the centre of Japan’s World Cup front-row and was so adept at striking that the ball was in and out of the scrum before the heavier sides could bring their weight to bear. But the Reds themselves will field two Brave Blossoms, fullback Ayumu Goromaru and Hendrick Tui, and it would have to be said that their Queensland teammates do not want to see them lose face this afternoon.