GET YOUR TICKETS FOR BALLYMORE<\/a><\/p>\nIt\u2019s why Saturday afternoon\u2019s trial (2pm AEST) against the NSW Waratahs has extra meaning. It\u2019s home for the Reds. They just don\u2019t play here that often because the venue is now streamlined into being the BMS National Rugby Training Centre. Club grand finals, tour games against Japan\u2019s Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights, under-age games and appealing trials like this one against the Waratahs are the menu of games.<\/p>\n
In the case of the Waratahs, the Reds haven\u2019t hosted the \u2018Tahs in a pre-season trial at Ballymore since 2005 when Elton Flatley was skipper and led a 38-0 runaway.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m always excited to play here. It\u2019s where we train day in, day out so this chance to play in front of family and friends is a good feeling,\u201d Salakaia-Loto said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t happen every week and it\u2019s a first trial here in 21 years for the Waratahs.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery opportunity we play against the old foe is good. It\u2019s perfect for what we need entering the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
For both sides that means a strong hitout and feeling out potential strengths and weaknesses ahead of a full-on meeting in Round One in Sydney on February 13 when Swyftx Super Rugby Pacific kicks off.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a teenager, I learnt at the Reds from guys like \u2018Simmo\u2019, Greg Holmes, \u2018Slips\u2019, Sam Talakai, Kane Douglas and Scott Higginbotham,\u201d Salakaia-Loto said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey helped shape me as a player and as a person as well. I’m still in touch with those guys on a regular basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really enjoy passing on advice where I can with some of the young guys in our current squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone like (No.8) Vaiuta Latu carries the ball really well. He\u2019s someone to be excited about. I try to pass on some knowledge at lock to Charlie Brosnan. Tom Robinson is another.\u201d<\/p>\n
Salakaia-Loto is in the prime of his career at 29, especially when you recall those powerhouse and productive periods he played in tour games against the 2025 British and Irish Lions.<\/p>\n
Injuries restricted him to just seven Super Rugby Pacific outings last year. The influential 1.98m forward wants more out of this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cStringing games together, finding consistency with doing my role, looking for improvements\u2026that\u2019s what I\u2019m after,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Nowhere in this trial is there a higher level match-up than at lock.<\/p>\n
Queensland\u2019s Wallabies locks Salakaia-Loto and Josh Canham are up against two Wallabies locks in sky blue\u2026new skipper Matt Philip and Angus Blyth.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Josh and I, this will be our third season playing alongside each other. I think we complement each other really well, We have good chemistry and we hope to take it up a level this season,\u201d Salakaia-Loto said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat better way to start than at Ballymore against the Tahs. They have Mat Philip, the new captain, and Angus Blyth, who spent a long period at the Reds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reds vs Waratahs at Ballymore, 2pm AEST Saturday, January 31 LIVE ON STAN SPORT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queensland Reds lock Lukhan Salakaia-Loto has spent much of his rugby life training and learning at Ballymore. It\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,12061,760,85],"class_list":["post-446983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-queensland-reds","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}