Genia poised for final test at 'home'
When Will Genia was a young man making his first start for the Wallabies at Suncorp Stadium he never imagined a day he wouldn't be playing in a gold jersey.
Genia still burns about a disallowed try from that 2009 Test against South Africa where he made his first run-on start but the match ended in victory.
On Saturday, Genia is poised to play his final Test at the Brisbane stadium where he has enjoyed some of the greatest moments of his rugby career.
In 2011 he was part of the Australia team which defeated New Zealand in the final Tri-Nations match and he lined up against the British and Irish Lions in their tour opener at the venue in 2013.
"You just never think it's going to end. You think you're always going to be coming back here playing in front of great crowds, wearing the gold jersey," he said.
"It's not that you take it for granted, you're just young.
"You just don't understand that everything is finite and that it will come to an end at some point."
Genia may be preparing to play in Brisbane for the final time against Argentina on Saturday but his international career won't end until the Wallabies World Cup campaign comes to a conclusion later this year.
A third World Cup is a fitting reward for the 101-Test veteran, who says regardless of Saturday's result the clash with the Pumas will become another memorable Suncorp Stadium moment.
"Suncorp's always been my favourite place to play in all of world rugby and I've had some really good memories there from a team perspective and an individual perspective as well," the ex-Wallabies captain said.
"It'll be sad, no doubt, but it'll also be very exciting to hopefully, if I get the opportunity to get out there and have one last crack."
- AAP
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Don’t pay a blind bit of notice to Lukie… he likes the sound of his own voice and is always looking for something controversial to say. He has been banging on about Leinster's defensive system all season like he knows something Jacques Nienebar doesn’t. Which is the reason why he didn’t apply for the job obviously
Go to commentsI’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. As a Saffer following SA teams in the URC - I now watch virtually every European game played on the weekend. In SR, I wouldn’t be bothered to follow the games being played on the other side of the world, at weird hours, if my team wasn’t playing. I now follow the whole tournament and not just the games in my time zone. Second, with New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. Thats why I think Japan’s league needs to get in the mix. The international flavor of those teams could make for a great spectacle. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? We’ve measured down to the average no. Of seconds per game. Where the measurement of the impact on the fanbase? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
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