Hats off to Billy Proctor on his extraordinary shift tonight at outside centre (No.13) for the Hurricanes. He’s such a great communicator whenever Proctor needs the ball to come to him & once he has the ball, he has the licence to thrill before Proctor gets the job done with one TRY in the first half & a TRY assist in the 2nd 40. Love how he reads the opposition defenders where Proctor was able to bulldoze the Reds one-by-one; Even if when he’s almost bound to be held down, he can call on his own men to help pick up the pieces for him & that made his attacking play a whole lot easier.
Next up is Asafo Auama who made a huge difference off the bench, having guided the Canes’ comfortably towards the winning circle here in Townsville. He didn’t put a foot wrong as always at line-out throws. Plus, he has so much physicality to unpack not just in defense by stopping the Reds, but Aumua can also be a destructive attacking asset that got away with two TRY assists throughout the 2nd-half. Glad he’s learning from one of the greatest in his hooker role – Dane Coles who is currently on his last season of professional rugby at age 36; That way, he can hopefully make the No.2 shirt on his own & achieve even better long-term.
And yes, the Reds are left so scarred through plenty of lost penalties that led to a huge mess everywhere before they never recovered ever since. But there’s one player though who has a huge future ahead at first five-eighth in none other than Tom Lynagh – the son of Michael Lynagh. He’s blessed with the early winning penalties where Tom helped the Reds lift a bit thanks to a series of three-point goals. He also learned the cross-kick really well when executing their attack where Tom found the other wide area to Josh Flook before Jordan Petaia found the TRY line later during the first half. He has the best guidance out there at Ballymore, so Tom can be as good as his dad every week in the Maroon jersey & potentially for the Wallabies at some point.