Australian head coach Michael Cheika has confirmed that scrum-half Will Genia will undergo surgery after suffering a broken arm in Ireland’s 26-21 win in Melbourne on Saturday.
Genia was withdrawn after 27 minutes at AAMI Park and did not return to the match as he finished the game in a sling on the Wallabies bench.
Cheika said that the Melbourne Rebels half-back was ‘king hit’ by an Irish player and that he will undergo surgery on the fracture on Sunday.
“We ran the play round the front and Will is the decoy around the back and he got king hit from the side, it looked like a shoulder, and when you’re not expecting it that’s what happened,” Cheika said.
“Hoops went down the front. Willie went around the back. I’m not sure who it was but they jammed his arm and broke it.”
Meanwhile Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt said that his side’s start to the second-half was where the tourists ultimately won the match and that their improved effort at the breakdown was a big factor in their turnaround this weekend.
“We certainly got a sting at the start,” Schmidt told Sky Sports after the match.
“It looked far too easy for Kurtley Beale to go over under the sticks right from the very start but I thought from that moment on we knuckled down and worked our way into the game.
“We got a good try [Andrew Conway] on the edge there and great conversion from Johnny [Sexton] and it just boosted a bit of confidence and then we accumulated points where we didn’t last week.
“That third quarter was probably the turning point of the game. We started the second-half strongly and we kept that pressure on and got very close with Jack [McGrath].
“He didn’t get awarded that try but soon after Tadhg Furlong muscled his way over and then we were just hanging on at the end really.”
Schmidt continued on the breakdown: “I thought we pinched a few of their balls and I thought Peter O’Mahony led from front. He was superb. We didn’t allow them to get too many of ours and I felt that a couple of times that Michael Hooper is very good at faking the poach and then bouncing out.
“We gave up a couple of penalties on our own account but they got less of them.”
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