HEGARTY BACKED TO LEAD THE WAY
Reds relying on No.10 to halt nine-game losing streak against Tahs
RUGBY UNION: Scott Higginbotham is certain new Queensland Reds flyhalf Bryce Hegarty won’t be spooked in the tight moments that decide tonight’s Super Rugby interstate showdown in Sydney.
The match has enormous personal significance for Hegarty because he faces the two NSW Waratahs trumps, Bernard Foley and Israel Folau, after playing understudy to them for two seasons.
Hegarty has connected quickly at the Reds but how embedded in every move can you be after just six weeks?
Higginbotham, however, who will play tonight in a different way, as pack boss from No.8, has faith in Hegarty’s composure at No.10.
“Having first played with him in Melbourne (in 2013) I knew he was very talented but it’s great to see how much he’s grown in a game-awareness sense,” Higginbotham said.
“Bryce’s talk around the field in the playmaker role has been really positive.
“This is his third club so he won’t be put off playing the Tahs, he’s got the composure and he’ll enjoy it.”
Skipper Samu Kerevi added: “Sometimes we get a bit frantic and a lot of calm from him makes a difference.” A sober voice would say the Reds are rolling the dice with their fifth No.10 in their past five games against the Waratahs, after going with Jake McIntrye (2016), Quade Cooper (2017), Jono Lance (2018) and Hamish Stewart (2018).
Such instability was once mocked by Queenslanders in the days when Aldi-brand No.10s such as Daniel Halangahu, Christian Warner, Shaun Berne and Duncan McRae were rolled out by losing NSW sides.
Higginbotham was the first player this week to mention the grotesque nine-game losing streak against NSW.
“You look at the win-loss, 0-9, and we’ve just got to win,” he said.
“It would be a huge confidence lift to do it.
“With the football that the guys are playing, you don’t want to sound like a broken record with the mindset of last year, where you think to yourself ‘we probably should have won that’ and you go through a season and not win.”
The Reds are 0-2 but the improvements are real – more line breaks and an impressive increase in discipline that has cut stupid tackle and off-side penalties.
Kerevi knows a strong start is key at the SCG, after playing catch-up early against the Highlanders (10-24) and Crusaders (0-10).
“We need to start well, be the aggressors and get momentum,” Kerevi said.
Higginbotham’s last visit to Sydney with a Reds side was in 2012 when he celebrated Dom Shipperley’s epic last-gasp runaway try to steal a 25-21 win.