Youngs too good for Genia
Twelve months after being feted for his performance at Twickenham, Wallabies halfback Will Genia was handed the harshest of reality checks at the London venue.
Behind a dominant pack, England's Ben Youngs completely outpointed the Queensland Reds No.9 as the home side thumped Australia 35-18 on Saturday.
Everything the Leicester scrumhalf touched seemed to lead to English points during his 53-minute performance while Genia ended up with sore ribs and bad memories for his trouble.
While man-of-the-match Youngs terrorised the Wallabies with his pace and daring raids, the English did a great job of nullifying Australia's star man in last year's 18-9 win at Twickenham.
Their contrasting fortunes were perfectly captured just after halftime.
With Australia 19-6 down and with only 14 men on the pitch following Matt Giteau's sin-binning, Genia opted for a quick tap.
A few phases later and just metres from the line, Genia's decision to go himself down the blindside ended up costing Australia dearly.
From the resulting turnover, Youngs produced the sort of creativity so rarely seen in English rugby.
Dummying behind his own line and sliding past another Quade Cooper missed tackle, he sent lock Courtney Lawes away down the blindside.
His resulting pass found powerful winger Chris Ashton and he used his pace to leave the Wallabies flyers in his wake.
"If I had been caught I would have looked a real idiot, sometimes your instincts in rugby take over," Youngs said.
"He (Cooper) sort of over ran it and I sort of saw a gap and you have to go with it and the coaches back you 100 per cent."
As the English crowd celebrated a match-winning 26-6 lead, Genia left the park holding his ribs.
Not that the match was not entirely pain-free for the son of former England halfback Nick Youngs.
He lasted only few more minutes before succumbing to his own aches and pains from a big hit that left him vomiting on the field.
Although he didn't appear too bothered post-match.
"I don't know who it was but who ever got me it was a good shot, it was a fair tackle and I felt that one," he said.
"I am absolutely fine just my ribs and sternum went into spasm ... (it was) just the pre-match meal (coming up)."
This was just the second time that Genia and Youngs have clashed with the Englishman taking the honours in their budding rivalry, which includes England's 21-20 win in Sydney earlier this year.
With Genia only 22 and Youngs a year younger, they could have many more interesting battles in store in the coming decade.
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