{"id":544963,"date":"2026-03-16T23:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T23:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/544963\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T23:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T23:01:09","slug":"mcreights-verdict-reds-star-playmaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/544963\/","title":{"rendered":"McReight’s verdict Reds’ star playmaker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wallabies star Fraser McReight<\/a> has delivered a telling endorsement of returning fly-half Carter Gordon<\/a> after the playmaker produced a match-winning Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> moment for the second straight week.<\/p>\n

The Queensland Reds<\/a> left it late to blow past a dogged NSW Waratahs<\/a> outfit on Saturday in Brisbane, with two Gordon tries among three long-range efforts in an 11-minute burst sealing a 26-17 victory.<\/p>\n

Gordon was on the end of a neat Jock Campbell<\/a> linebreak for his first try before doing it himself to ice the contest as the Reds moved to 3-1.<\/p>\n

Hopping a defender as he collected a pass, Gordon brushed off two more then blazed around Wallabies back Harry Potter<\/a>, who had fresher legs after coming off the bench at fullback, for a 55-metre try.<\/p>\n

It followed Gordon\u2019s match-winning try in Canberra a week earlier and comes in his first Super Rugby Pacific season since the former Melbourne Rebels<\/a> No.10\u2019s injury-marred NRL cameo with Gold Coast.<\/p>\n

Test and club teammate McReight chuckled at the mention of Gordon\u2019s highlight reel plays, and said it was other areas of his game that had impressed in a pleasing sign for Australian rugby ahead of next year\u2019s home World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as there\u2019s not any photos again of his receding hairline, he was a bit off that last week,\u201d the flanker, in his first season as Reds captain, laughed.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefending with him \u2026 he throws his body around. As a loose forward, I love that, respect that massively, he\u2019s searching for blokes (to tackle).\u201d<\/p>\n

The Wallabies have cycled through No.10 options in recent years, with Gordon\u2019s fellow Reds No.10 Tom Lynagh<\/a> starting in all three British and Irish Lions<\/a> Tests last year.<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s been unsighted so far this season as he rehabilitates a leg injury, while Ben Donaldson\u2019s Western Force<\/a> are 1-4.<\/p>\n

Tane Edmed is yet to put his mark on the Brumbies (3-2) since an off-season move from the Waratahs (2-2), who promoted Jack Debreczeni<\/a> ahead of Lawson Creighton<\/a> to face the Reds.<\/p>\n

McReight said Gordon had quickly won over his teammates and was owning the position.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can take criticism on the field really well,\u201d the No.7 said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoys can get into him \u2013 he\u2019s our 10, and we need him talking \u2013 and he steps up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no better image in any forward\u2019s mind (than) when you see your 10 wanting the ball and taking the space, and he\u2019s done it in back-to-back weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reds coach Les Kiss admitted he\u2019d been forced to play Gordon for longer than planned due to injuries and the match situation in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

He hinted there could be changes to manage players\u2019 workloads ahead of stern tests in Fiji<\/a> and Wellington \u2013 against the Drua and Hurricanes \u2013 in the next fortnight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wallabies star Fraser McReight has delivered a telling endorsement of returning fly-half Carter Gordon after the playmaker produced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-544963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544963","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=544963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}