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Cooper and Genia agree deals at the same second tier Japanese club
By Online Editors
Veteran Wallabies playmaking duo Will Genia and Quade Cooper will join Japan’s Kintetsu Liners following this year’s Rugby World Cup.
The Melbourne Rebels duo, who also played Super Rugby together in Queensland for the Reds, are the latest top players to head to Japan to play club rugby after the country hosts this year's World Cup.
The Liners, who play in Japan’s second-tier Top Challenge League, said scrum-half Genia will link up with the club after the World Cup, but fly-half Cooper, who was not named in the Wallabies’ Rugby Championship squad, could move to Japan as soon as September.
Japan’s domestic league season will begin in January 2020, which is later than usual due to the World Cup, which starts on September 20.
“My aim is to do my best and, through my play, I would like to make this the number one team in Japan,” Genia said in a statement on the club’s website.
The Liners, who are based near Osaka, have never won Japan’s Top League competition since it started in 2004 but did win the amateur All-Japan Championship three times between 1966-1974.
“I will work hard to take the team back to Top League,” added Cooper, whose exclusion from the Australian squad caused a rumpus among Wallabies fans. “When we reach the Top League, then I want to contribute more again at that stage. I want to challenge rugby in Japan, and I can still contribute on the pitch.”
Fellow Wallaby David Pocock will also return to Japan in 2020 and it was not just Australian players who have been enticed to Japanese rugby next season.
All Blacks Kieran Read, Brodie Retallick and Ryan Crotty will also be heading to Japan, along with South African loose forward Duane Vermeulen.
- AAP
WATCH: Part one of the two-part RugbyPass documentary on what the travelling fans can experience at the 2019 World Cup in Japan
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Latest Comments
I think it was a better rugby destination for him.
He was developed in Melbourne and had a relatively brief stint there. I think he was possibly dropped out of the squad for the return of someone like To'omua (also a Melbourne local) in 2019 ahead of the RWC. But then he wasn't picked up by another Australian team and went to play in Japan when he only really seemed to play a hat full of top level games (maybe injured for long periods??) before he went on to Scotland. But it was only in Scotland that he started to get a lot of consistent game time and selection.
The thing is, no one talked about him being a missed opportunity in Australia before he left - a little like Mac Hansen. But he has been able to forge a top level career since leaving. Both men only had a handful (5 or 6?) games at Super Rugby level before they made a decision to leave (or had it made for them I suppose). Other countries have gone on to develop them and that is great for them and it is probably good for the global game as it means the best players are rising to the top - if not in their birth country than in another. I think there are a lot of issues with poor player development in Australia but I don't know if these two blokes are very good examples of it.
Go to commentsOk I understand. Give them my number please Nick.
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