I reckon we’re going to see the start of something big at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.

The Reds versus Waratahs game marks the return of Super Rugby – but not as we know it. For years I had been saying that professional rugby had lost its way, with confusing team names and games played in different time zones failing to connect with fans. The disruption caused by the coronavirus has seen all the pieces thrown up in the air and I for one like where they have landed.

The concept of a top-level competition involving Australian sides only – and the return of the tribalism that made interstate rugby clashes such a huge part of the Queensland sporting calendar – is enormously exciting.

I would make just one change though: I wouldn’t call it Reds versus Waratahs. I’d call it Queensland versus NSW to kick-start a return to the good old days when the likes of Mark Loane, Paul McLean and Tony Shaw and co took the boys in blue apart and the crowd chanted, ‘We want 50, we want 50’.

Add In the fact that the NSW coach brought in Origin enforcer Paul Gallen to fire up his team and Reds captain Liam Wright countered with ‘if they have to do that then they just don’t get it’ and I reckon local fans are in for one of the biggest feasts of old-school rugby for years.

What do YOU reckon? 

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