By Damien Stannard The Sunday Mail (Qld) January 09, 2011 10:41AM


Will Genia sets a collision course with teammate James Horwill by stating his intention to retain the Queensland Reds captaincy when he returns to Ballymore tomorrow.


The Wallabies halfback was expected to be a stand-in last year when he took over leadership of the then-battling Super rugby outfit from Horwill following the big lock's season-ending knee injury.

Then a funny thing happened.

Genia inspired his teammates on a run that finished just a breath away from what would have been a shock finals appearance.

Horwill, a tower of strength during darker days at the Reds, was expected to reclaim the job in this year's Super 15.



But the decision facing coach Ewen McKenzie has been complicated by Genia's success and his willingness to hang on to the role.

"I was proud to captain Queensland last year and if I'm not captain I'll be a bit disappointed," Genia said.

"The big thing is, though, everyone has to lead in their own way. We all have to put our hands up."

McKenzie said he planned to make the call "sooner rather than later", adding that prop Ben Daley, who tasted the Reds captaincy during last year's trials, would also come into the equation.

"We've got more (options) this year than we did last year," he said.

"You want to identify leaders by name but you also hope there will be a bunch of players who lead by example, by enthusiasm and by experience.

"It was tragic what happened to James last year but it gave Will an opportunity and he stepped up. That's how it works."

Genia will be reunited with teammates tomorrow after spending his Christmas break with family in Papua New Guinea. The Reds play only two trials, set in the tropics against the Crusaders in Cairns and the Brumbies in Darwin, before their campaign starts against the Western Force.

Genia hopes to play a significant role in at least one of the trials, with understudy Ben Lucas also likely to be given plenty of time.

One of the other selection issues is at openside flanker, where the departure of All Black Daniel Braid has raised some questions.

Ed Quirk has been waiting in the wings behind Braid since he was an Australian Schoolboys star in 2008 but a knee injury has hampered his pre-season.

That leaves Lei Tomiki as a frontrunner, although Sunnybank's Australian sevens representative Liam Gill will have a chance to impress in the practice games.

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