Will Genia’s ankle injury adds to Queensland Reds’ pain after 35-21 loss to Hurricanes

THE Reds’ playoff ambitions for 2014 are all but extinct and talisman Will Genia is on crutches as a cruel spin-off to their tumble in Wellington.

Will Genia tries to reel in a loose ball under pressure from Hurricanes winger Julian Savea.

THE Reds’ playoff ambitions for 2014 are all but extinct and talisman Will Genia is on crutches as a cruel spin-off to Saturday night’s tumble in Wellington.

Halfback Genia’s right ankle was rolled inwards when Hurricanes skipper Conrad Smith fell across it midway through the second half of the costly 35-21 loss.

Losing their way after leading 14-10 at half-time may be a season-killer.

The hot Hurricanes have surged into the top four as the new top dogs of the Kiwi conference with four-straight wins. The 13th-placed Reds just don’t have the momentum or the confident flow in attack to surge like that even though the finals are still mathematically possible with seven rounds to play.

They now sit two wins out of sixth spot.

That Genia may not be on deck for the desperate quest to break a three-game losing streak against the Blues in Auckland on Friday night is a real possibility.

“The ankle started to feel a little better when I cooled down but it’s still too early to know if I can play on it,” Genia said of his chances.

News_Image_File: Will Genia injured his ankle against the Hurricanes.

Genia’s limp symbolises exactly how the Reds’ season is going.

They gallop on their good leg with efforts like Quade Cooper’s neat delayed pass that put flanker Beau Robinson into a hole for the early Ben Lucas five-pointer and a perfect 5-0 jump.

They play with a wooden leg when they spill ball, drop off one-on-one tackles, kick poorly and offer the Hurricanes tempo to attack as they did after half-time on Saturday night.

Reds skipper Horwill had said pre-match that his 100-game milestone would feel hollow without a much-needed victory. Unfortunately, that was the numb feeling forced upon him.

“This competition has come up with some weird things. No. 1 we have to break this cycle of three-straight losses and move on from there before working out the maths on anything else,” Horwill said.

“We have to just keep going, keep fronting up.

“It is very disappointing when we were playing the game at our pace, not theirs, as we wanted but started giving them the fractured play and pill to hurt us. We let them get in behind us.”

News_Rich_Media: Catch all the highlights from Westpac Stadium where the Hurricanes take on the Queensland Reds.

There was a wonderful moment before kick-off that elevated the night beyond a mere rugby match. Rival skippers Horwill and Smith linked arms and their teams when a bugler played The Last Post.

The pair shook hands as a final nod to trans-Tasman unity to honour the Anzac Day round before both sides ripped into each other.

The Reds may have led 14-10 at half-time but the alarm bells on the Hurricanes’ freaky knack for constructing tries in a blur of speed and slick passing had already been sounded.

The opening two shots of winger Cory Jane’s hat-trick were both scored down the sideline guarded by rookie winger Jamie-Jerry Taulagi, the Reds most inexperienced player, and it was hard to imagine it was coincidence.

Few defences would have handled the high octane precision of Jane’s second as the ball swept from one touchline to the other.

News_Image_File: Hurricanes winger Cory Jane dives over for a try.

Reds winger Chris Feauai-Sautia had fewer chances but he outplayed bigger name All Blacks powerhouse Julian Savea with the ones he had.

His handling was certainly far surer. He made a strong run out of his own quarter early and an even better 25m gallop swerving by several defenders in the second half when the Reds were under siege.

Centre Ben Tapuai and flanker Ed Quirk pulled off excellent trysaving tackles out wide in the second half. Prop James Slipper was top notch but the leaks in defence caused by loose play were too great.

Reds coach Richard Graham injected fresh energy from the bench. There was an instant result and the hint of a rally when replacement hooker James Hanson burrowed over to make it 25-21.

This is now the character point of the Reds season where they can either slide into oblivion or rally from lowly 13th to show what sort of fibre they have.

It is no longer dependent on whether the 2011 Super Rugby champions make the play-offs or not.

The measure will be whether they can claw a tough win from Auckland’s hostile Eden Park on Friday night and start climbing back towards mid-table and above over their final seven matches.

News_Rich_Media: James Horwill discusses the Reds’ loss to the Hurricanes, criticising his side’s one-on-one tackling.

Graham’s face was strained and pained on Saturday night outside the dressing room when yet another promising position could not be converted into a win. It has become an almost weekly occurrence during a dire run of five losses in six games.

The Reds line-up is full of starchy characters but they have to show it with results.

“We’ve got to continue to believe we are a bloody good side, gather momentum and post a number of consecutive wins,” Graham said with a rare flash of emotion in public.

“The most important thing is how we respond. The table is condensed and teams are knocking off other teams with upsets but at the end of the day we have to be winning.

“We led 14-10 at half-time yet for the first period after the break we played as if 20 points down. We let it get untidy, paid the price, got back into it (25-21) and then made three back-to-back errors in the final 10 minutes.”

Hurricanes flyhalf Beauden Barrett said his team’s plan to limit the danger of Will Genia and Quade Cooper all hinged on their forwards and ball-carriers starting to roll.

“When Quade has supports roaring around him and his pack is on the front foot we all know how dangerous he is. Our forwards got the upper hand and put the pair of them under pressure and made it hard for the Reds,” Barrett said.

Give credit to the Hurricanes. No team in Super Rugby has scored more than their 31 tries and they are mixing that potent attack with far more authority up front and consistency.

They are a team on the rise. The Reds have to prove they have the character to fight and scrap for every win possible from here to not give up their hard-earned reputation of quality.