Will Genia pulls the strings to steer Rebels past the Reds

Will Genia was at his influential best for the Rebels against his old side, the Queensland Reds.

Rebels halfback Will Genia puts boot to ball against The Reds at AAMI Park on Friday. Picture: AAP

The referee’s microphone picked up the constant chatter coming from Melbourne Rebels halfback Will Genia during Friday’s clash with the only Super Rugby side he had ever played for before that night, the Queensland Reds.

There was no mindless “come on, boys” or “let’s get stuck into them” or “I hate these bastards … after all I’ve done for them, they still couldn’t find a way to keep me”. No, the chatter was intensely rugby-specific, almost as though he was giving a university tutorial.

“Watch them,” Genia said, as the Reds formed up for an attacking midfield scrum. “They’ve got a left-footed kicker (Aidan Toua) and a right-footer (Jono Lance). Get ready.”

Every word had a purpose. Even Rebels captain Adam Coleman kept quiet and listened. He’d only ever captained two sides and each time for a single match, the Force last year, the Rebels this night, so he was very much learning the ropes. As he remarked after the match: “I could sit back and let Will do the talking.”

Coleman need not have been miffed, since it allowed him to concentrate on what he does best, providing inspirational leadership. And besides, James Horwill might have been captain of Queensland, captain of Australia, but Genia always was the scheming brains of the outfit.

He paid particular attention to his halves partner, Jack Debreczeni. The two had never played together and it seemed for a moment that Genia was giving him more than he could cope with. But as the match entered its second half, the pennies seemed to drop into place. In the 41st minute, Debreczeni spotted the two Reds locks, Izack Rodda and Lukhan Tui patrolling the blindside and so he doubled back behind the ruck and made almost scornful use of the mismatch to scythe between the two big men for an easy try.

Genia’s greatest genius was in keeping the Rebels on task. They might have been distracted after the Reds were reduced to 14 men following Scott Higginbotham’s red card and, for a 10-minute period to 13 men, after Tui was yellow-carded. Use the driving maul, suck in the defence. Only then spin it wide. But run straight. Make the numbers count.

“I think it was a special win for Will,” Rebels coach Dave Wessels said yesterday.

“I think he cares about the Reds. They will always be a special team for him.

“But I think the commitment he showed to our team to put in a performance like that showed just how committed he is to our cause and to our team. So I was really pleased with him on a lot of fronts. It was a very good performance.”

But he is a demanding boss, Wessels. Now he wants Genia to do it again and again.

“Our expectation of world-class players is they play world-class every week,” he said.

Wessels has high hopes and expectations of the entire side.

“It’s very important that our players realise how far we are from where we want to be.”

The Rebels executed the basics well but Wessels is limiting them to four basic points each week. By the time they’ve played their fourth match, that will be 16 traits they should have mastered.

On the evidence of the Reds match, the Rebels certainly need to concentrate on their scrum. But that’s the real frustration of Queensland’s poor discipline. Until Higginbotham’s departure, the Reds set piece looked dominant but that might have been that the Rebels took time to settle.

“As the game went on, we got better and it’s not only the fact that they lost a man. I thought that technically we looked better. In the front row, we were working as a unit towards the latter parts of the game, which we weren’t doing early. We’ll spend a fair bit of time scrumming this week and make sure we learn from that.”

They will need to. Their opponents — the Sunwolves in Tokyo — were rock solid in their set-piece work against the Brumbies.