Quade Cooper's flyhalf replacement Mike Harris has sworn to direct the Queensland Reds in his own style in their rivalry-round opener against New South Wales on Saturday.
While enigmatic Wallabies flyhalf Cooper rehabilitates his knee, Kiwi-born Mike Harris has been handed the maroon 10, seemingly with the full confidence of his coach and team-mates.
Backing up from a fairytale 2011 Championship run with Cooper calling the shots, Harris has a hard act to follow, but says he won't let external expectation deter him from playing his natural game.
"I've just got play what I see and play the game I want to play. I'm certainly not going to play like Quade Cooper, I'm going to play like Mike Harris and I'm really looking forward to it," he said.
"Obviously there's a lot of outside pressure, but in terms of being in the group and fitting in and having the support of my players and peers around me, that's the most important thing and one thing that I wanted to do when I first came over was to prove myself to the players and the organisation."
"I'm excited by Saturday's challenge and I've been told to play the game that I play and that's what I'm going to do."
Sage Reds boss Ewen McKenzie threw full support behind his 23-year-old pivot, placing him on par with Cooper, the 2010 Australian Super Rugby player of the year.
McKenzie hinted that Harris would use his size to play a more direct running game from first receiver.
"I think it's a result of trial games and training that he became the right solution for us," said McKenzie.
"We recruited him for that (flyhalf) role originally. We played him at 12 last year but recruited him as the back-up 10, and through all the preparations he proved to be the right guy to start the season for us."
"He's a big guy, doesn't mind taking the ball to the line, so he's a threat in his own right. He's got his own style of football and that's what we want him to do; we don't want him to play like Quade."
"Quade plays his way and Mike will play his way. In the end, we've got a framework that we play to. We're an organised team but we're not structured, so Michael will play it as he sees it."
"You just look for specific skills and what they bring. I know with the trials last year he played at 10 for us in two halves last year and we scored just the same number of points in those halves as when Quade was playing 10 in the first halves."