A Super title and 25,000 crowds: How Reds plan to make Queensland a powerhouse

September 5, 2026 — 9:15am

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Queensland Reds chief executive David Hanham and general manager of high-performance Sam Cordingley are basking in the warmer relationship between Rugby Australia and New Zealand Rugby.

Talking to the Herald from their offices in Brisbane, they expressed confidence that RA heavies Phil Waugh and Dan Herbert, and New Zealand counterparts Steve Lancaster and David Kirk have provided the stable platform that rugby needs at Test and Super Rugby level.

There is a Bledisloe Cup Test coming to Brisbane on Anzac Day, a conviction among Super Rugby executives that 10 teams is the right number and confidence that the competition’s best team, the Hurricanes, would stack up well against any club side in the world.

“Some of the best players in the world are playing in Super Rugby,” said Cordingley, who played a key role in the recruitment of new Reds coach Vern Cotter.

“If you put the Hurricanes up against any teams in the north, that would most likely be a really good result ... I don’t think it’s a question of talent [in Super Rugby], it’s a question of consistency.”

But those more favourable bigger-picture conditions are only one reason why the Reds are, in cricketing parlance, determined to play on the front foot.

Unlike their Super Rugby peers in Australia and New Zealand, the Reds have recorded a series of operating profits, participation numbers in the........

© Brisbane Times