Reds boss Les Kiss has revealed that he’s “very happy” to have overseen the return of the “physical” Carter Gordon to rugby union, as both club and country look set to benefit from the rebirth of the 24-year-old.
Speaking to reporters in Brisbane on Monday, Kiss said: “I think there was always something in Carter’s mind that he’d like to come back one day, but from my perspective, this just accelerated in the last four or five days.
“It was a combined thing in terms of Rugby Australia and Queensland, just getting it to a point to make things work.
“I wasn’t involved in that whole process, but as you can imagine, we’re very happy to have Carter coming back to the Reds. We recognised him as a seven-year-old, I think as a school kid, we saw the potential there, and it’s fantastic that he’s coming back home.”
Injury-ravaged time in the NRL
Gordon has been contracted to the rugby league side, Gold Coast Titans, for the past year, but spent much of his time sidelined with a back injury. Now, returning to the Reds and the resurgent Wallabies, Kiss is hoping to get his new man straight back into the action.
“There’s obviously an opportunity here to get into rugby straight away,” he said.
“I think the environment that he’s going to be moving into straight away is pretty ideal, and don’t forget, I’m not speaking on behalf of Joe here, but we’ve got Tane Edmed there, and we’ve also got James O’Connor over in the English Premiership that he can call on as well.”
Not guaranteed a spot
Aware that there’s now plenty of competition for the 10 shirt, which wasn’t the case the last time Gordon wore the green and gold of the Wallabies, Kiss acknowledged that the returning star will have to work hard to regain top spot for both club and country.
“He’s excited, as you could imagine, and really looking forward to getting back into it and working hard – there’s no entitlement there. He just feels he wants to get back and work hard and learn his way, that’s for sure,” he said.
“The one thing about Carter is he’s got a good size about him – he’s got a good height, he’s robust, he’s physical, and he meets all those things to be able to play what is now a very, very challenging position in the game.
“Tens are targeted a lot, and he gives us another quality option to be able to play in that position and balance out how we want to play our game.”