O'Connor's contract audition against Wales
James O’Connor will wear the No.10 jumper for Queensland against Wales in a timely audition for the off-contract veteran.
The 34-year-old, who made his Test debut as an 18-year-old, was restricted to just three appearances off the bench because of injury during the Super Rugby Pacific season.
His mentoring of recent Test cap Tom Lynagh and Lawson Creighton was appreciated by new Reds coach Les Kiss, who will give the playmaker time in the saddle in Brisbane on Friday.
O’Connor, who made his Super Rugby debut for the Western Force in 2008, is hoping to kick on into 2025 and face the touring British and Irish Lions for a second time.
Signed from the defunct Melbourne Rebels on Tuesday, six-Test prop Matt Gibbon and 2021 Tokyo Sevens Olympian Lachie Anderson are also set to be thrust straight into the action for their new team.
Lock Josh Canham, who arrived at Ballymore from Melbourne last month, is also expected to be named in the Reds team on Wednesday.
Wales have extended their stay after two losses to the Wallabies in as many weeks and more than 20,000 are expected at Lang Park in what will be the Reds’ biggest crowd in four years.
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“This is like a full circle moment for me,” former Nudgee student and Queensland schoolboys representative Gibbon said.
“It has been a pretty tumultuous year for everyone involved at the Rebels so it feels awesome to have my future settled for my young family.
“Les Kiss made me feel wanted from our first conversations after I’d been kicking stones for a month.”
Meanwhile, one-cap Wallabies prop Harry Johnson-Holmes will move from NSW Waratahs to the Western Force.
“After seven years with the Waratahs, I felt like it was time for a change of scenery,” he said.
“I have admired the direction the Force are taking things.
“I’ve worked with Cronny [Force coach Simon Cron] previously at the Australia Under-20 and when I debuted at the Waratahs [as an assistant], and I always thought of him as a great mind.”
In-form Wallabies forwards Taniela Tupou and Lukhan Salakaia-Loto – both former Reds-turned Rebels – are yet to be re-homed after the Melbourne team’s demise, while Test prop Sam Talakai is another high-profile prop still on the table.
