Fraser McReight will become the 35th member of the 100 Club at the Queensland Reds in this high-stakes qualifying final against the Chiefs in Hamilton.
It’s a proud roll call of the greatest to play in the maroon (and red jersey) from the late Stan Pilecki through to Jock Campbell just months ago.
Most had a rugby super power. Will Genia had his bullet pass and sniping. Ben Tune had his gliding power through contact. John Eales redefined the role of lock. Tony Shaw was a warrior leader and master mauler. Michael Lynagh, Paul McLean and Quade Cooper had control of every flyhalf skill. Chris Latham was the super-charged attacker with the monster torp in his boot. Tim Horan was the Prince of Centres. On it goes.
McReight has his too and not because of the Harry Potter-like scar on the forehead he copped earlier this year in Super Rugby Pacific
You can’t play openside flanker as a spectator. You are fearless and fully invested in what the role demands or you are a spectator in the stands.
It’s why McReight’s first Reds coach Brad Thorn has respect for the very best openside flankers above just about everyone in the game.
“They are over the ball giving opposition forwards of 110-115kg almost a free shot to do damage with head and shoulders to clean them out," Thorn once told me.
He knew from personal experience because he was doing the cleaning out as an All Black, being that human torpedo to flatten opensides from being effective.
When McReight is plucking three or four turnovers a game with his well-timed swoops at the breakdown, it’s like a river is relentlessly flowing in one direction until a boulder just stops that flow abruptly.
A big change of possession can swing the whole momentum of a game.
It’s what McReight adds on top of that which is the fuller picture of him as one of the world’s best flankers.
He’s scored 25 tries for the Reds in Super Rugby and been a linkman supreme in many more than that.
He’s got a self-deprecating sense of humour too. Remember when Harry Wilson was flipping a pass between his legs and Josh Flook and Tim Ryan were putting the ball on the toe at Suncorp Stadium back in February for that breathtaking try against the Highlanders?
It was McReight who backed up, chased and scored. As he humbly put it, he just ran “the fat man’s line” up the middle of the field to finish it.
That play was never in the DNA of David Croft, who lived in the breakdown and crossed for just eight tries in Super Rugby games. The young Liam Wright was a different style of openside too albeit fearless as well.
David Wilson, the 1999 World Cup-winner, has been the standard-bearer as far as Reds’ opensides go. In that World Cup final, the French kicked Wilson in the chin and cheap-shotted him in other ways. He came out of it, bloodied but on top.
For McReight to now be seen at the same level by many is high praise indeed.
That said, the closest in openside style to McReight over the 30 years of Super Rugby in the professional era for the Reds has probably been Liam Gill.
McReight was a leader long before the (c) was attached to his name this season. By virtue of his high intensity position he has to be.
In a subtle way, McReight showed the way again this week.
While some in rugby have almost co-ordinated 100-game milestones for home matches, here was McReight welcoming the most hostile of environments in Hamilton for his.
“To think about 100 games is very special for me and my family. What better week for it than a qualifying final, do-or-die rugby. Everyone here is primed,” McReight said.
The mettle of rookie captains is tested in a multitude of ways. The first, almost unseen hurdle, is to maintain the focus on your own high performance when you are inevitably trying to coax more from the 14 players on the field beside you.
McReight has not missed a beat while sustaining the excellence of his backrow play. In part that is one of the strengths of the Reds because, beside him, he has two Wallabies captains in Wilson and Tate McDermott leading other areas of the game.
Many of the Reds have grown up with McReight over his eight seasons as a Red.
The view of prop Aidan Ross, fresh to the Reds less than a year ago, is a good take on McReight, the up-to-the-minute version.
“He’s class. On the field, you see how good of a player he is with his turnovers and unseen efforts,” Ross said.
“As a person off the field, for a new member to the squad, he’s been very welcoming. He’s always checking in. Top man.”
To a man, his teammates bought a special run of black 100-Game McReight T-shirts to wear at the captain’s run in Hamilton today.
Just another show of respect for the latest worthy figure heading to the 100 Club.
