PNG-born scrum half called into Wallabies squad

Don Hook

PNG-born Will Genia has been called into the Wallabies Tri Nations squad and is expected to make his Test debut off the bench against the All Blacks at Auckland's Eden Park on Saturday 18 July.

Australian coach Robbie Deans kept a promise made some weeks ago to call up the 21-year-old Queensland Reds scrum half once he recovered from a serious finger injury received in a game against the ACT Brumbies in May.

Genia replaces incoming Brumbies scrumhalf Josh Valentine in the Australia squad.

According to a report in the Canberra Times, Deans said he'd noticed Genia last year. "He's grown physically and with that he's really grown in confidence in the game.

"Against a tiring defence, a guy like him is going to be pretty challenging and we've seen that through Super Rugby."

Deans is said to have called Genia and told him he would have been in the squad for the first four internationals but for the in jury.

Genia spent his early years in Port Moresby before being sent at the age of 12 to board at Brisbane Boys College where he learned his rugby.

Genia becomes the number two scrumhalf in the Australian squad behind Luke Burgess. It's almost certain he will start his Test debut on the bench, replacing Burgess on the field during the second half.

Footnote: Rugby must run in the Genia family.  Will's younger brother Luke is halfback for the Queensland 1 team in the Australian Schools Championship being played in Sydney. 

Comments

[Spowf]

Will Genia is a good friend of mine! I'll tell him of this post. BTW, great blog!

[Don Hook]

As expected, Will Genia made his Test debut off the bench against the All Blacks at Auckland's Eden Park on Saturday - but only just.

Genia came on as halfback in the 74th minute as the Wallabies desperately tried to pull the game out of the fire and win at Eden Park for the first time since 1986.

However, the All Blacks held on to retain the Bledisloe Cup and win the Tri-Nation opener 22-16.

Coach Robbie Deans said Genia had displayed "some nice touches" during the six minutes he was on the field.

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[Mari Ellingson]

Oops! I did not post this comment under this item. Mine was a query on old pics of an old school in Alotau. Tenkyu tru Keith for posting my query on your site. Many thanks.

[Mari Ellingson]

Greetings from London UK. My name is Mari Ellingson, a PNGn hailing from Kwato Island Milne Bay province. I live and work in the UK with the Commonwealth Secretariat.

I came across your site when I was surfing the web for PNG websites. I love your stories and your site layout - really cool! I am currently building my website and would like to hook up with others publicising PNG or with a lot of PNG content on their sites.

I am a singer/songwriter so most of my stuff will be on music. I am hoping to launch my website at the end of this month.

I wonder if you have any old pictures of Cameron (Alotau) High School in the late 1960s early 70s. I was a student there from 1967-1970.

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Contact Mari at mjellingson@rocketmail.com