James O’Connor’s impressive Queensland Reds debut was just a taste of what is to come from the rejuvenated former Wallaby, according to coach Richard Graham.

O’Connor looked the goods at five-eighth in his long-awaited Super Rugby return on Friday, as the Reds fell 20-13 to the Highlanders at Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium.

Although his kicking was at times astray, he provided Queensland with spark in the first half with an eye-catching run deep into opposition territory, and will only be better for his first run in a Reds jersey, Graham said.

“For a bloke that really hasn’t played for three months or so, he looked really sharp on his feet and challenged them every time he ran with the ball,” Graham said.

“He definitely has commented on the speed of the game and how much quicker it is than what he’s used to, so that’s going to take him time to adjust.

“But he’s a Test footballer – it won’t take him much longer.”

O’Connor appears to be his own hardest marker, admitting he let Queensland down with some of his work off the foot.

His missed penalty in the first half was something of a turning point – what could have been a 6-3 Queensland lead became 9-3 to the Highlanders minutes later.

“I’ll put my hand up, I did some hopeless kicks like a schoolboy. It’s just not good enough to be honest,” he said.

Graham said the Reds were “sucked” in by the Highlanders’ territory game – and then played into their hands with inaccurate kicking.

“On the back of that we got penalised a couple of times at the breakdown, which I thought at times was a little bit harsh,” he said.

“But I thought our effort was very, very good – we’ve scrambled exceptionally well in defence where we were under a lot of pressure at times.

“We held on really well as a group, and I thought we left on par there in the scrums.

“We got a point, which is important – you’ve got to come away with something and we did that.

“We probably left a number of scoring opportunities out there which is a little bit disappointing.”

The Reds will now look to sharpen up their attacking shape as they prepare to face the Waratahs in Brisbane next weekend.

In a welcome piece of news, Graham said there were no new additions to Queensland’s lengthy injury toll.