Teenage backrower Jake Schatz will make his Super 14 debut for the Reds at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night against one of the toughest teams in the competition, New Zealand’s Crusaders.
A head knock to experienced lock Van Humphries meant a return to the scrum engine room by Reds captain James Horwill, who played flanker against the Waratahs last weekend, while hooker Sean Hardman has succumbed to an ankle injury, giving Saia Faingaa his first opportunity to start a match in the Reds No 2 jersey.
McKenzie has also made four changes to his bench, all in the forwards, while back reserves Richard Kingi, Tim Walsh and Will Chambers all retained their spots.
Meanwhile the Faingaa twins have spent their entire professional rugby career together but Friday night’s Reds Super 14 match against the Crusaders will be the first time twin brothers Saia and Anthony Faingaa will have started a match together.
Saia (pictured) has played in 40 games and Anthony 10 during their Super 14 careers at both the Brumbies and Reds, but they have yet to run out for the opening whistle at the same time.
"That’s the most exciting thing. This is the first game we have actually started together," Saia Faingaa told reporters at Ballymore today.
"This is very memorable for us and our family is flying up for it."
Friday is also a proud individual moment for the hooker, who after 13 games off the bench for the Reds gets his first chance to start after durable hooker Sean Hardman was ruled out with an ankle injury.
"It’s a new era for me and hopefully I can improve and get better, and hopefully retain the starting position," he said.
Faingaa said starting the match would allow him to prepare and hit the deck running, rather than coming into a game part way through and risk rushing things in order to make an impact in the time available.
"(When you’re on the bench) you come out and overplay your hand," he said.
"When you’re starting you can do whatever you want really and this week I can hopefully just play my game rather then try to do any extra stuff."
In his second year with the team Faingaa is thriving under the guidance of former World Cup winning prop and now head coach Ewen McKenzie, who understands the importance of achieving superiority up front.
"We have a sound team and we are performing well, it is just a couple of micro-things we need to tune and we’re on the right track to be successful," Faingaa said.
"If we just play our own game and work on our defence like we have been, hopefully we can put a good effort in again and come away with the win."
K ick off is at 7.30pm local time.
Reds team to play the Crusaders
Peter Hynes (GPS), Digby Ioane (Sunnybank), Morgan Turinui (Sunshine Coast), Anthony Faingaa (Souths), Rod Davies (GPS), Quade Cooper (Souths), Will Genia (Norths), Scott Higginbotham (Wests), Daniel Braid (Sunshine Coast), Jake Schatz (Sunnybank), James Horwill (University), Adam Byrnes (University), Laurie Weeks (University), Saia Faingaa (Souths), Ben Daley (Gold Coast).
Reserves: James Hanson (University), Greg Holmes (Sunnybank), Robert Simmons (Sunnybank), Leroy Houston (Sunnybank), Richard Kingi (Sunnybank), Tim Walsh (club TBC) Will Chambers (club TBC)
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