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The NZ Super team Will Genia was 'always so wary of'

Will Genia /Getty
Former Wallabies scrumhalf Will Genia has been writing about the need for Australian Super Rugby teams to continue playing New Zealand’s finest, despite the grim results they’ve suffered so far this Trans Tasman season.

The 33-year-old retired number nine starred for the Reds and the Rebels in Super Rugby alongside winning his 110 caps for Australia as one of the all-time Aussie greats in the position. He was just the tenth Australian Test centurion and only the second-ever Australian scrumhalf after George Gregan to earn the honour.

The scrumhalf was the 78th Wallaby to captain Australia, after skippering the side against the United States of America at the 2011 Rugby World Cup and won over 130 Super Rugby caps, but the team he found most difficult to play wasn’t the mighty Crusaders.

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    The Spirit of Rugby | Episode 3

    “Even back when I was playing for the Reds and the Crusaders weren’t winning titles, they were still the gold standard. It was them and the Hurricanes who we were always so wary of,” said Genia, writing in his column in TheXV.rugby.

    “The Hurricanes were sort of an outlier from the other Kiwi teams because they didn’t so much play to the same structure, they were loose and played with a lot of flair and X-factor. At the time there was Piri Weepu, Cory Jane, Ma’a Nonu, Conrad Smith – I think you might have had a young Beauden Barrett.

    “Whenever we did previews for them, it was always about keeping the game as structured as you possibly could because the moment it got loose, they were incredible. They would hurt you. They fed off it and grew in energy and confidence when the game became loose. I always found them really difficult to play against.”

    That’s not to say the dominate force that was the Crusaders were in any way easy.

    “And obviously the Crusaders, for the exact opposite reason. They’ve always been so incredibly structured, they’re very hard to break down. When you have the ball, you know you have to keep the ball for a large amount of time to be able to break down their defence because they’re just so well organised.”

    According to Genia, New Zealand’s team were always a cut above, long before the current competition.

    “Truth be told, we would always talk up the Australian derbies – when we would do media and things, you’d say the old cliches, “Yeah it’s going to be tough, there’s a lot of tradition in the rivalries, we’re expecting a fierce battle” – but while we knew we were going to be physically bashed up by our Australian brothers and it was always going to be competitive, we never went into those games on edge, feeling like it was a big game.

    “But that’s how we felt when playing the Kiwi sides. To me, they were definitely the tougher games, just because of the standard and the level of rugby that they played at. They always played with a lot of pace and intensity in their game. It was always physically more taxing, physically more demanding. It was always a different week, a more focussed week whenever you were playing the Kiwi teams as opposed to the local derbies.”

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    J
    John 27 minutes ago
    Super Rugby draw heavily favours NZ sides but they can't win in Australia

    Cheers for the comment HHT!


    I think your point on unfair draw and mine, which in essence is about an unfair draw actually aid each other for a rather strong argument that the draw needs to be looked at.


    I think this is a case of two things can be true at once.


    I have chosen in around 1000 words to explore this particular issue with the draw I have identified.


    Your point, with having the NZ teams playing each other twice on some occassions while others in Aus not is also not fair.


    But with the way the table looks currently, would the NZ sides all be in the top six if the draw had been done more in line with my and your point?


    For instance, 4 of the 6 Aus wins against NZ sides have come against the Highlanders, 3 in Aus, 1 in NZ.


    The Landers have beaten the Blues and lost to the Canes by 2 points, those are their only two NZ games to date and they play the Chiefs this weekend. Their 3 games against the Aussie sides in Australia compared to the Blues 1 is a massive disadvantage because travel takes it’s toll.


    Then looking at your example the Blues, they have the toughest season of any side by far but I would also argue that the limited travel is a massive help in preparation, recovery etc. But their draw must be looked at, any side would suffer with a draw like that.


    Although I am not suggesting the Aus sides are better than the NZ sides overall, the current ledger and table set up suggests the rift is not as big currently as the underlying assertion to your argument suggests.


    More will absolutley be revealed over the coming rounds as the strength of the two franchises.

    7 Go to comments
    J
    JW 40 minutes ago
    'We offered him a three-year deal': Hurricanes priced out of U20 star

    I see I’m not getting my point across.

    If the plan from his family for him was to make more cash

    Lets play along with you presumption these “shackles” existed then. Logically, as I’ve already tried to show, that makes no sense, but I’ll try to use it to show what I mean by saying/answering.. they would have got more cash by playing hard-to-get with the French clubs by returning to New Zealand and signing with the Hurricanes. Now you should see returning to NZ is not relevant to the discussion, it is also a euphemism, as he would already be (have returned) when he first decided to stay. His family would know that signing a development contract for the Hurricanes in no way legally affects his ability to take an offer in France.


    Now, that wasn’t what I was saying happened, but if you can now follow that thread of logic, I’m saying its because this situation happened, signing for Toulon just months later, that you are wrong to think “returning to New Zealand” must mean he wasn’t “shackled”.


    Actually, I’m not saying that he was “shackled”, the article is saying that. That is how you would read the words “His parents see that as the route they want their son to take, and we support that.” and “but it’s probably a slightly different package to what Toulon can offer” here, and I’m pretty sure in most English speaking places GD.


    Of course without those statements I agree that it is very possible he’s grown, changed his mind from wanting to develop here with players and coaches he’s comfortable/friends with, to where he wants to take on the challenge of a rich and prestigious club like Toulon. A few months is perhaps enough time to people he trusts to open him up to that sort of environment even, but that’s simply not the message we go, is it? I also think you maybe have an over defense stance about thinking intrinsically or literally about money meaning he was thrown lots of dollars? It might be far from the case, but the monetary value of been given a home and jobs for the family, all the bells and whistles a wealthy club can provide etc is far removed from the mentality he’d currently be in of “cleaning the sheds” after a game. Even without real money just the life style they got given when there last would no doubt be enough to change the mind of some grown up living day to day off your own sustenance/plantation or like that they would have had.

    11 Go to comments
    J
    JW 2 hours ago
    Ex-All Black Richie Mo’unga teases return to ‘Test match setting’ in 2025

    They didn’t really let him go though did they. He was gone, already signed to leave some 18 months earlier. Not much they could do.


    Definitely a shame though, hence why I criticize the coaching for not unlocking that composure earlier. We would have seen he was definitely the player we need to take us through that WC, and the next, before the contract talks started. After, was too late. Conversely, if he had of continued to play the way he had been when he signed to go to Japan, I have no doubt Damien McKenzie would have been the player to lead us in 23’, and then we very likely would have won that Final. I’m not so sure Dmac would hve been good enough to get us past Ireland, Richie definitely deserves a lot of credit for simply getting us to the Final.


    But that was all my message to HHT was. That class, or talent in this case, is permeant, and games like Ireland showed he did definitely had that. Obviously Richie’s got a large responsibility in realizing it sooner too, but in terms of not displaying it when it counts in 2019 or 2023, I reckon that’s on the coachs more than a lack of talent on his part, and it’s the same shame when it comes to your sentiment. If he was at the point were he could have saved out bacon against Ireland in 2022, it might not have been too late for NZR to have come in with a big contract offer. The bigger problem now is that Razor is only exasperating that problem with this new group. We now clearly know he was a big factor in Richie taking so long, because he’s replicating the same problems with the current batch. Thankfully NZR had no other option but to offer a big contract to secure Dmac this time though, regardless of how he must have felt after being treated like that.

    8 Go to comments
    L
    Louise Hayward 2 hours ago
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