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'He doesn't work hard enough' Eddie Jones reveals Genia's career may have ended before it started

By Online Editors
Will Genia of the Wallabies celebrates the win with his team during The Rugby Championship match between the Australian Wallabies and the South Africa Springboks at Suncorp Stadium on September 8, 2018 in Brisbane, Australia. Photo by Jono Searle/Getty Images

Ahead of halfback Will Genia’s 100th test match for the Wallabies, England coach Eddie Jones has recalled his time as coach of the Queensland Reds when a young Genia was in the Reds’ youth stocks.

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“I remember this fat little bloke in the academy,” Jones said.

“They said ‘nah he doesn’t work hard enough.’

The bad rap on Genia prompted Jones to reach out to him and his father, to steer him in the right direction. Jones says following the discussion he has never seen a boy work as hard.

“I remember having a meeting with him and his dad — I think his dad was an education minister for Papua New Guinea.

“We had a bit of a chat about what he needed to do and where he needed to go and I never saw a boy work as hard as him.

“I can always remember on a Thursday when we didn’t train he’d always come up and get a bag of balls and practice his box kicking.

“It’s a real tribute to him how hard he’s worked and what a great player he’s been for Australia.”

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When the Wallabies play England at Twickenham in their final test of the year they will be hoping to end a five-match losing streak against the Old Foe, as well as putting a horror year behind them that has yielded just four wins from 12 test matches.

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When Genia runs out onto the turf he will become just the 10th Wallaby to reach the 100 club, an achievement he rates as his biggest achievement in the game.

“It’s one of those things where you have to suppress that emotion because it’s obviously a big Test and all about the team,” he said.

“But it would be one of my biggest achievements, if not my biggest achievement, getting the opportunity to play 100 Tests for my country.

“I’ll hopefully celebrate it with a win afterwards.”

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Despite the tough times in 2018, Genia believes the bond between the players is as strong as ever, saying it’s the closest environment to a family as he has been a part of.

“It’s like a family, it’s the most I’ve ever felt part of a team.

“Whether it’s because we’re staying tight because things aren’t going well or whatever it is, I don’t know.

“But it’s a group where there is so much belief and so much faith in what we’re trying to achieve.

“I’m a believer and I’ll be a believer until I am not here.”

In other news:

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J
Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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