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Jones blasted for Huxley release
c/o Rugby Heaven,
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Queensland legend Andrew Slack believes Eddie Jones' "shocking" call to cut Julian Huxley has come home to roost as the Reds head into the Super 14 lacking backline depth.
The Reds' paper-thin backline stocks have been frighteningly exposed through a season-ending knee injury to strike weapon Chris Latham and the likely no-show of Japan-based centre Ryan Nicholas.
Jones must now cross his fingers injury-plagued veteran Ben Tune lasts the entire season as he has no able back-up at outside centre.
Slack felt Jones blundered badly by letting go of the versatile Huxley after a fine 2006 in which he ably filled four positions, including No. 13 and 15.
Huxley has returned to the Brumbies and will start the Super 14 next weekend at fullback, as well as serving as the main cover for Stephen Larkham at five-eighth .
Jones let Huxley go because he saw him solely as a fullback.
Slack, who captained the Wallabies to the 1984 grand slam and earned 134 caps for Queensland, was Huxley's first coach at the Reds when he won the player of the year award in 2003.
"It's never a perfect world but I clearly thought it was a mistake to let Hux go because of what he covers," Slack told AAP.
"He covers fullback, he covers outside centre, if you want he can play inside centre and five-eighth as well.
"I said it at the time and I'll say it again, it was a very, very silly thing to let Hux go."
Huxley starred at five-eighth in the Brumbies' 28-28 draw with the Hurricanes on Friday night with coach Laurie Fisher praising him for his playmaking control, passing and kicking game.
"You can see that he will be an asset to the team this year," Fisher said.
Exacerbating the Reds' decision has also been the loss of Wallabies winger Drew Mitchell to the Western Force and the release of centre Steve Kefu.
Winger Caleb Brown is unlikely to play in Queensland's Super 14 opener against the Hurricanes next Saturday night after aggravating a hamstring strain in last night's 17-15 trial win over the Highlanders.
Academy rookie Brando Vaalu and Henari Veratau are tussling for Brown's position on the right wing as Jones is chasing France-based former Wallaby Andrew Walker to shore up some depth.
But the biggest problem is outside centre if Tune goes down.
Veratau replaced Tune (groin) as a precaution after 30 minutes against the Highlanders but was shown to be out of his depth.
"We just wanted to give Tuney 30, we were happy with that," Jones said. "The doctor pulled him off and every minute for Tuney counts and we don't want to waste it."
Neither did a cheeky Jones waste any minutes for prop Rodney Blake who was supposed to be limited one half of game time in line with the Wallabies restricted training activities agreement.
Blake was benched after the first half of the game at Gold Coast Stadium but returned to play out the last 15 minutes.
Jones countered he'd only gone over the 40-minute limit by five minutes due to Blake's first-half sin-binning.
"I told Rodney he's only allowed to play 35 minutes in the trial next year," he chirped.
AAP
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