The buck stops with us, as Genia urges players to lift

Rookie international Will Genia says it’s high time the under-achieving Wallabies started delivering to ease the growing pressure on besieged coach Robbie Deans.

Genia is among a raft of youngsters Deans has thrust into the Test arena over the past two years and is convinced it shouldn’t be the coaching staff copping the flak for the Wallabies’s diabolical two-from-10 record since the start of the Tri Nations.

ARU boss John O’Neill and his board will conduct a full review of spring tour following Saturday’s Test against Wales at Millennium Stadium, with jobs on the line after the Wallabies’s first loss to lowly-ranked Scotland in 27 years last Saturday.

O’Neill says Deans retains his full support and Genia believes it’s vital that the Wallabies produce against Wales to ensure the coach’s assistants Richard Graham and Jim Williams are also spared after a forgettable season for Australian rugby.

“The buck’s got to stop with the players,” Genia said on Monday. “You know, we’re the ones out there, we’re the ones reading the game.

“You can prepare for as much as you can during the week but there’s always going to be times in a game where you face a situation where you haven’t practised for and it’s up to the player himself or the team to adjust to what’s happening on the field.

“So it’s definitely up to the players – and it always has been.”

Genia has been a rare shining light for the Wallabies this year, the little halfback sparking the Wallabies’s drought-breaking win over the world champion Springboks and then drawing comparisons with the great George Gregan after his recent Twickenham heroics against England.

But it’s unlikely Genia or fellow 21-year-old David Pocock – who confirmed his elevation above 109-Test stalwart George Smith as Australia’s first-choice openside flanker with a man-of-the-match display two weeks ago against Ireland – would have received their chances under any other coach than Deans.

Trying to build a side capable of challenging for the 2011 World Cup in his native New Zealand, Deans is not afraid to invest heavily in youth, as clearly evident by the fact the average age of the current Wallabies line-up is just 24.

Too often, though, Deans’s players are letting him down.

“The coaches give us every opportunity to perform on the field,” Genia said.

“And especially with the way that they do coach – they give us the ability to express ourselves as players and as individuals on the field.

“So you’ve got to start to repay the faith.”

Like Deans, Genia is adamant the Wallabies are close to really clicking and doesn’t believe the side’s losing record in 2009 is a true reflection of the progress they’ve made.

“If you just look at the way things happened for us on the tour so far – we beat England, went up against the grand slam champions of Europe, played well and should have won that (drawn game against Ireland) and then we lost to Scotland,” he said.

“So a week’s a long time and we’ve got to do as much as we can to prepare well in terms of analysis and physical and mental preparation so that we come good Saturday.

“It’s all about finishing this tour off on a good note and beating Wales. We don’t want to finish off losing, so we’re not even going to talk about losing.”