Rumors abound among the Wallabies camp that long time stalwart, Will Genia will be dropped for the opening match against France.
Link’s axe looms as doubt surrounds Genia’s position in the team
Link’s axe looms as doubt surrounds Genia’s position in the team.
Halfback Genia shapes as the big casualty because coach Ewen McKenzie beat the drum of consistency and performance so zealously on Monday when he announced 91-Test hooker Stephen Moore as the new Wallabies skipper.
Despite a scintillating man-of-the-match performance against the Highlanders last weekend, it appears it’s too little, too late. The word from within the Wallabies camp is that Ewen McKenzie favours both the Brumbies Nic White and the Waratahs Nick Phipps.
“Unluckily for me, it’s going to be a tough day at the office when we finally sort it out,” he said of some of the selection quandaries.
“That’s a good situation for the Wallabies, it’s tough on individuals, but the way performance works is that performance gets you in but it’s performance that keeps you there. So, if you get a chance, you have to deliver.”
Dropping the 55-test Genia for the second time in 10 months is still a huge call after he rediscovered his form on the November tour of Europe.
But that’s not the only headache for McKenzie, who admits the Wallabies are “playing catch-up” leading into their first test this weekend.
Wallabies captain, Stephen Moore, flanked by the co-vice-captains, Adam Ashely-Cooper and Michael Hooper
As a result, “Link” is wasting no time in assessing his squad at their Gold Coast camp, going off a combination of Super Rugby form, incumbency and instinct ahead of the team announcement later today.
“We haven’t got enough time, we have to get on with it,” he said.
“We have a finite number of training sessions and the French have been here since the middle of last week.
“They’re missing a couple of players but they still have 24 players who’ve been in camp since before they came here and they’ve been in (Australia) since the middle of last week.
“In that sense, we’re playing catch-up.”
McKenzie acknowledged the strong performances of the Waratahs and Western Force made picking the 32-man squad extremely difficult. But said that last weekends results where the Waratahs got on top of the back-to-back champions, the Chiefs and the Brumbies dismantling the Rebels justified his selections.
“The squad we’ve picked reflects really good form across all the teams in Super Rugby, which I’m pleased about,” McKenzie said.
“Since we’ve announced the squad, it’s been confirmed to me that we picked the right guys so that will make selection really difficult.
“The team that I announce, there will be good players that will miss out.”