James O’Connor produced one of the great playmaking performances to pilot the Queensland Reds to a 29-16 Super Rugby Pacific win over the Western Force on Friday night.
The Wallabies stood down from the Reds captaincy duties this season to focus on his own performance but found it thrust back upon him in Perth.
Lukhan Salakaia-Loto suffered an ankle injury just four minutes in as the captaincy curse that has already hit Liam Wright, Tate McDermott and Angus Scott-Young struck again.
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Five-eighth O’Connor took it all in his stride, having a hand in all four tries to Hamish Stewart, Jock Campbell, Josh Flook and Fraser McReight.
“James David O’Connor – an absolute masterclass,” former Wallaby Morgan Turinui said on Stan Sport.
“You play that well, you get the middle name mentioned. He found opportunity, and the execution shows the quality of player he is. Executing in all that traffic, the moving pieces, finding the calm in the middle of it and making decisive decisions was a huge point of difference.”
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O’Connor’s five star display leaves the Reds 3-0 and the gritty Force 1-2.
It also gave Wallabies coach Dave Rennie an emphatic reminder of his claims to the Test No.10 jersey after an injury plagued 2021 that featured Quade Cooper’s remarkable return.
“I haven’t seen O’Connor animated like that in a long time,” former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika said on Stan Sport.
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“His visuals, his facial expressions, the way he was demanding players – he was in at rucks telling guys to get out. He really wanted to be a part of that game.
“I’d love to see him be like that every week because he can improve his game even with all the experience he has.”
O’Connor dedicated the win to those affected by the devastating Queensland floods.
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“Caught a canoe to training on Tuesday,” the 31-year-old said.
“It’s been a huge week for Queensland, I’m really feeling for everyone in Brisbane.
“That win tonight was for you guys back home. We spoke about it a lot – digging deep for Queensland. The boys really wanted this one tonight, we wanted to win for our state and we did.”
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The Force scored just one try to Kyle Godwin and while their spirit can’t be questioned they need to add some extra spice to their attack.
The hosts also failed to capitalise on yellow cards to Feao Fotuaika and Hunter Paisami in either half.
“That one hurts,” Force captain Feleti Kaitu’u said.
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“I thought we had them on the ropes there through quite a few periods in that game, but unfortunately we just fell short in converting that into points.
“As a collective, we just weren’t good enough tonight.
“We’ll review hard, review honestly, and we chip away this week and make amends.”
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