Wallabies Spring Tour: French refuse to release Will Genia

TheWallabies will be withour star halfback Will Genia against Wales in Cardiff.

Will Genia in the thick of things for Stade Francais against Lyon last weekend.

Australia have suffered a huge blow ahead of their Grand Slam tour opener against Wales, with star halfback Will Genia refused leave from his club, Stade Francais, to play in the Cardiff match.

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika made the request to Stade’s president, Thomas Savare, for Genia to be released from French Top 14 duty to play in the Test but was knocked back.

The game falls outside the World Rugby international window — during which clubs must release their players if selected for Test matches

Savare’s refusal to release Genia means Nick Phipps will wear the No 9 jersey against Wales, with Nick Frisby his back-up off the bench.

Genia was Australia’s most dangerous attacking player throughout the Rugby Championship but Phipps was critical in Australia’s best attacking display of the season, against the All Blacks in their last Test.

Genia played his first match for Stade in 10 months last weekend, guiding them to a 25-19 win over Lyon with a typically probing game from the base of the ruck.

His absence for this first match is hardly ideal, as a loss to Wales would end Australia’s hopes of claiming their first Grand Slam since 1984 by defeating all four home unions: Wales, Scotland, Ireland and England.

Genia will be drafted straight into the squad for the second Test against Scotland and will also be available to play against France and Ireland because those games are within the allotted Test window.

However, Australia’s final match of this tour, against Eng-land in London, also falls outside the window.

If the Grand Slam is still alive, Cheika will be lobbying Savare furiously to have Genia for that match at Twickenham.

In the meantime, most interest this week surrounds the selection of Australia’s midfield for the Cardiff match. Samu Kerevi had claimed the No 13 jersey as his own but was ruled out of the tour after injuring his ankle against the All Blacks, leaving Israel Folau and Tevita Kuridrani as the leading candidates to replace him.

While Folau slotted in at outside centre in attack against New Zealand after Kerevi left the field, Cheika reiterated that he believes the star’s best position to start is at fullback.

“It’s always fullback, for mine,” Cheika said. “Now that doesn’t mean he can’t come up and play in the front line sometimes.

“But when you can diffuse the high ball like he can and you can counter-attack like he can, I think those skills are always there.

“Last week we played him up in the front line a bit as a different type of threat and we could pull him back and do something different this week.

“The thing is, it’s not about what’s his best position, it’s about how he can play his best every game.

“For us and the style we play, once you get out of the set piece we’ve got some very clear roles and no matter whether he was playing 13 or 15, his role would be the same after that anyway.

“I think it’s nice for people to speculate over that. It creates interest in the game.

“But at the end of the day it’s about him fulfilling his game and his potential.”