Incumbent Wallabies captain Harry Wilson has revealed the measures taken to ensure his injury curse of the past two seasons does not occur again, as he sets his sights on Super Rugby Pacific glory and a British and Irish Lions crusade.
The star No.8 will return from a five-week layoff to recover from a fractured arm when the Reds take on the Hurricanes at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night, giving him two rounds and a finals series to prove he is still the man to spearhead Australia’s cause.
Harry Wilson (right) will return to the Queensland Reds against the Hurricanes on Friday night.Credit: Getty
Wilson revealed he had not spoken to national coach Joe Schmidt about the forthcoming baptism of fire the Wallabies will receive from the touring Lions, instead focusing on delivering a title to Queensland.
The 25-year-old suffered the same injury on the same arm at roughly the same time last year, which threatened to derail his comeback to the Test fold.
But he told this masthead he had changed his technique to make sure history did not repeat.
“It was late in the game and one of the bigger boys went in with one of those late drop-hit carries, and his head hit my arm, and that’s where I got the little fracture from,” he said.
“I’ve done a little bit of work so, in the future, I won’t put myself in those situations, and I’m very confident coming back that it won’t happen again.
“When they’re running at your knees, it’s easy to let them fall over and use your arms, but I’ll try and get a bit lower and use my shoulder a bit more there, and use my shoulder on their shoulder.
“I’ve been rehabbing it as well as I can so it can withstand that contact.”
Wilson admits that despite the carrot of the Lions tour dangling in front of him, he had not allowed himself to think that far ahead and instead was focusing on achieving “something special” at Ballymore.
In Wilson’s absence, the Reds have won just twice – against the Waratahs and Blues – but a win against the Hurricanes would give Queensland the clean sweep of all New Zealand sides since Les Kiss took the coaching reins last year.
The last time the Reds battled the defending minor premiers they lost in golden point, but Wilson was adamant they had the tools to write those wrongs.
“For us, it’s massive. We want to knock them off and show we’re the real deal,” he said.
“I know we’re the real deal, but you need to knock off those top teams to show it. I’m sure that’s not at the top of Les’s mind, the Kiwi clean sweep, he just wants us to be ready for finals time.
“It’s pretty evident Australian rugby is heading in the right direction. In saying that, we probably should have knocked off the Hurricanes – losing in golden point after dropping it over the line – so we’ve got the belief that we can beat any team on our day.”
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