0
Chris Barrett, brisbanetimes.com.au | April 20, 2009 - 1:41PM
Chris Latham is just one of a number of former Reds plying their trade overseas.
They are the Queenslanders that got away from the Reds.
The Queensland rugby expat community - 16 Wallabies among them - is a mix of former schoolboy talents who have made their names at other franchises, Reds stars lured interstate, and long-time Super 14 players who have chosen an overseas stint to end their careers.
The result has been an exodus of quality and experience that has stripped the Queensland Reds to their bare bones and has forced head coach Phil Mooney, in his second year at the helm at Ballymore, to look to a new generation to fill in the gaps.
Such has been the rate of migration - be it for Perth, Canberra, Ireland or France - that the out-of-state banana benders would make a mean team if they were thrown together on the same field.
They'd make a formidable opposition, surely, for any side including, of course, the Reds themselves.
Their undisputed strength is in the back three and the back row. The trio of Chris Latham, who has unfortunately had his season ended by a shoulder injury since departing the Reds for England's Guinness Premiership last year, and Test wingers Lote Tuqiri and Drew Mitchell is plain frightening while at the back of the pack the line-up is similarly mouthwatering.
The difference at flanker and number eight, though, is that none of our three selections have played for the Reds.
Richard Brown, born and raised in Julia Creek, and Rocky Elsom and David Pocock, who were schoolboys at Nudgee and Churchie respectively, are all Wallabies who rose to international status elsewhere in Australia, at the Western Force and the Waratahs.
What Mooney would give for one or more of those three to finally wear a Maroon jumper someday.
If there are weak links in our side they are at fly-half - where we have chosen another former Nudgee lad, the 18-year-old James O'Connor, despite being slightly out of position, and in the front row, where France-based Ben Coutts is required at loosehead.
O'Connor is one of nine in the Reds expat squad now at the Force, the creation of which in 2006 was
the primary catalyst for the mass lines of rugby players at Brisbane Airport.
Losing players to the Perth franchise was a reflection on the state of affairs at the Reds, according to former coach Mark McBain.
"They left to the Force in droves because of the way Queensland was at the time," said McBain, whose 2001 Reds side was the last to have made the Super 14 semi-finals.
"The players didn't like what they saw here and they were offered lots of money."
McBain said the Reds suffer from a lack of leadership, with the side's senior figures, James Horwill and Berrick Barnes, only 24 and 22 years old.
"(Mooney) has lost so many core players in the team he has picked up," he said.
"Fellas like Nathan Sharpe, (Mark) Chisholm, Junior Pelesasa and Stevie Kefu . . . if they were around you'd have some leadership there."
David Croft, a Queenslander who never became an expat during a 116-game career for the Reds, is another who believes the loss of Wallaby lock has been felt more than most.
Sharpe went to the Force at the end of the 2005 season.
"Sharpy is a guy that left Queensland as the captain," Croft said.
"The guidance he could have given and the leadership would have been fantastic."
THE LOST REDS
15. Chris Latham
14. Drew Mitchell
13. Steve Kefu
12. Gene Fairbanks
11. Lote Tuqiri
10. James O'Connor
9. Josh Valentine
8. Richard Brown
7. David Pocock
6. Rocky Elsom
5. Nathan Sharpe
4. Mark Chisholm
3. Rodney Blake
2. Stephen Moore
1. Ben Coutts
Replacements:
16. Sam Cordingley
17. Clinton Schifcofske
18. Tai McIsaac
19. Toutai Kefu
20. Junior Pelesasa
21. Mitchell Chapman
22. Tom Hockings
http://www.rugbyheaven.com.au/news/n...e#contentSwap1
Reply With Quote
