Les Kiss welcomes Carter Gordon's rugby return

Queensland Reds head coach and future Wallabies boss Les Kiss has hailed Carter Gordon’s return to rugby union as a major boost for Australia’s playmaking depth but cautioned that no guarantees will be handed out.

The 24-year-old signed a three-year deal with Rugby Australia that brings him back from rugby league and immediately into contention for the Wallabies’ Spring Tour of Japan and Europe.

Gordon will join Tane Edmed as one of Joe Schmidt’s fly-half options, while Tom Lynagh and Harry McLaughlin-Phillips remain key playmakers for the Reds.

Kiss described the deal as the result of “an absolutely rapid” few days of negotiations, saying Gordon had always harbored the idea of returning.

"To tell you the truth, it's been an absolutely rapid, probably [the last] four or five days," said Kiss.

"I think there was always something in Carter's mind that he'd like to come back one day, but from my perspective, this just accelerated in the last four or five days.

"It was a combined thing in terms of RA and Queensland, just getting it to a point to make things work.

"I wasn't involved in that whole process, but as you can imagine, we're very happy to have Carter coming back to the Reds … [we] recognised him as a seven-year-old, I think as a school kid, we saw the potential there, and it's fantastic that he's coming back home.

"There's obviously an opportunity here, isn't there, to get into rugby straight away, so that's important, getting him into the mix straight away.

"I think the environment that he's going to be moving into straight away is pretty ideal, and don't forget, I'm not speaking on behalf of Joe here, but we've got Tane Edmed there, and we've also got James O'Connor over in the English Premiership that he can call on as well."