Horwill fit and hungry at helm

James Horwill pumps some weights on his first day back at Queensland Reds training. Source: Annette Dew / News Limited

IN his first day of captaincy since being stripped of the title at the Wallabies, the always diplomatic James Horwill was stumped.

And the question that rattled the Queensland Reds leader speaks volumes for the downturn in his glittering career.

Horwill punched in for work at Ballymore one week earlier than required on Tuesday and admitted he could not recall the last time he began a year injury-free.

"Um ... I don't remember ... Was it after the last World Cup? Nah, I don't know," he said.

This time last year Horwill had not played a game of rugby in 10 months, after his 2012 season was killed by a relentless hamstring injury.

His 2013 was a disaster.

He struggled to play consistently in Super Rugby and was written off as yesterday's man once Ewen McKenzie took the "C" from his name in late October following an inconsistent Rugby Championship.

Queensland Reds players form a ruck in an opposed contact session at training. Source: News Limited

Forever resilient, the giant lock believes his best rugby is ahead of him.

"Not everything goes to plan, whether that is injuries or the way you are playing or where you are playing, but you have to adapt," Horwill said. "Compared to 12 months ago, I'm in a better space.

"I hope there's better football ahead of me. I want to keep improving and keep getting better. It is something I am striving for.

"I hadn't played for 10 or 11 months at this stage last year. You sort of lose the timing. It is good to have a break and not have any injury clouds over my head.

"It's always nice to hit the ground running and do things in pre-season that I wasn't able to do last year."

Horwill, who played well in the last two Tests of the Spring Tour, said losing the Wallabies' captaincy was no longer an issue for him.

"It has been dealt with. I'm not concerned by that. I'm concerned with the Reds and the importance of hitting the ground running.

"We have a big season coming up and we want to win the title."

The Reds squad had already trained for 11 weeks prior to Christmas and their first trial is just five weeks away.

It might be scrum machine training but there's still time for some levity among the non-involved players. Source: News Limited

All Reds players who were part of the Wallabies' Spring Tour have completed sessions since returning to Australia, with Mike Harris and Horwill now training full time.

Quade Cooper is only training part time but, considering he played nearly every minute of the Spring Tour, it is a great show of commitment.

Reds coach Richard Graham said Cooper's January 29 boxing bout against Warren Tresidder at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre is not a distraction.

"Quade is not due back until next Monday and he has already done two sessions with us prior to Christmas and was back again this week," Graham said.

"Rugby is his first priority. He knows his focus is here."

"There's always a good transference between form in the Wallabies tour and form back into the Super Rugby season.

"The likes of Quade, Will (Genia) and James were all in form towards the back end of that (Spring) tour.

"For Quade, it was a period where he went through injury and then began playing a lot of rugby and really started to enjoy it.

"He put a lot of time into his rugby and was light on his feet and that reflected in his performance."

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