Attack guru McKay back at Reds rugby

Queensland Reds have gone back to proven attack coach Jim McKay as they strive to continue their Super Rugby revival.

McKay, who has coached at an elite and international level for 24 years, will return to the Reds in October on a two-year contract, taking him through until the end of their 2020 campaign.

The Reds pack flourished under the stewardship of new coach and former All Blacks forward Brad Thorn in 2018, with the Reds enjoying their best season since 2013.

But they found it hard to consistently score bunches of tries and post big scores, with Thorn opting not to use Wallabies backs Quade Cooper and Karmichael Hunt.

They tallied the second lowest amount of points for out of the 15 Super Rugby teams and attack guru McKay has clearly been brought in to boost that area.

He helped the Reds to a Super Rugby title in 2011, when they broke their Super Rugby season tryscoring record with 45 in 16 regular-season games.

McKay followed McKenzie to the Wallabies where he worked as their attack coach.

During his 15 months with the Wallabies, they had a run of seven straight wins and scored 15 tries in the 2013 Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup, which was more than double of that in the corresponding matches the previous year.

Following his departure from the Wallabies in 2014, McKay was a coaching consultant at the Worcester Warriors who he helped secure promotion back into the English Premiership.

McKay was Tonga’s assistant coach at the 2015 Rugby World Cup and head coach of Japan Top League side Kobe Steelers in 2016.

“I am extremely passionate about Queensland and the Reds,” McKay said.

“I’ve got to know Brad (Thorn) over the past year and I’m looking forward to working with him.”

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