Just under a year and a half ago none of Australia's five Super Rugby provinces would touch the damaged good that was James O'Connor.
Forced out of Australian rugby following a string of off-field indiscretions, O'Connor has spent the best part of the past 16 months in exile in the northern hemisphere.
But after Queensland were thrashed 47-3 by the Brumbies in Canberra last week, Reds coach Richard Graham will turn to O'Connor for a revival in his side's fortunes against the Western Force on Saturday.
O'Connor missed the Canberra mauling due to injury but Graham has confirmed the Wallabies World Cup aspirant will be in line for his Reds debut against his former team.
The main question that remains is whether O'Connor will line-up on the wing position he was earmarked for when recruited, or if he'll slot in at five-eighth in place of fellow Reds newcomer Karmichael Hunt.
Graham wasn't giving much away when pressed on what he'll do but acknowledged the availability of O'Connor was timely.
"Any time you can bring a world class footballer back into your team helps," Graham said.
"Karmichael two weeks ago, with the forwards going forward, he looked to understand the game pretty well and he moved the ball about nicely.
"That's a decision I'll have a look at and find what I think the best balance for the group is."
While Hunt was underwhelming in his Super Rugby debut, he was on a hiding to nothing as the Brumbies dominated a Reds outfit winning coach Stephen Larkham claims wasn't up to the competition standard.
Graham said Larkham's comments were ridiculous, but said there was no doubt his team's attitude and discipline had been sorely lacking against the Brumbies.
The Reds gave away a whopping 17 penalties in Canberra, including two yellow cards for former skipper James Horwill.
They were also destroyed by the Brumbies' rolling maul, as the home team ran in six unanswered tries.
Graham said Horwill's dismissal was indicative of a bad night all round.
"It was disappointing," he said.
"At that point in time we'd conceded 12 penalties in the first half and we'd conceded 17 in the game. That's not acceptable.
"What disappointed us the other night was the fact we gave away so many penalties and on the back of that it's always very difficult to win games.
"At the end of the day there's a foundation and that's your attitude. If you don't turn up with the right attitude you cop a whack and unfortunately that's what we got the other night."
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