Genia comes in for Cordingley

Reds coach Phil Mooney has handed the scrum-half jersey to Will Genia for Saturday's Super 14 clash with the Brumbies in Canberra.

Reds coach Phil Mooney has handed the scrum-half jersey to Will Genia for Saturday's Super 14 clash with the Brumbies in Canberra.

With Sam Cordingley failing to recover from a groin injury the number nine jersey goes to the 20-year-old Genia, and despite Mooney admitting Cordingley's experience will be missed he has every confidence in his replacement.

“Will is used to grabbing opportunities and making the most of them,” Mooney said.

“He played for the Reds before he'd even played club grade rugby and he was thrown into the deep end of a very big Super 14 pool last year while still a teenager, playing in 11 of the 13 games including as starting scrum-half against the Western Force.”

Uncapped Reds Academy scrum-half Ben Lucas comes onto the bench for the match after impressive performances for the Reds 2nd XV.

John Roe will continue as captain and in doing so will make his 100th appearance for the Reds, the 25th player to reach the landmark.

The Reds will be looking to bounce back from their 23-18 defeat against the Hurricanes in the last round.

Reds: 15 Chris Latham, 14 Digby Ioane, 13 Morgan Turinui, 12 Chris Siale, 11 Clinton Schifcofske, 10 Berrick Barnes, 9 Will Genia, 8 Leroy Houston, 7 David Croft, 6 John Roe (c), 5 James Horwill, 4 Van Humphries, 3 Rodney Blake, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Greg Holmes.
Replacements: 16 Sean Hardman, 17 Dayna Edwards, 18 Ed O'Donoghue, 19 AJ Gilbert, 20 Ben Lucas, 21 Peter Hynes, 22 Quade Cooper.

Date: Saturday
Kick-off: 19:40 (8:40 GMT)
Venue: Canberra
Referee: Paul Honiss (New Zealand)
Touch judges: James Leckie (Australia), Daniel Cheever (Australia)
Television match official: Steve Leszczynski (Australia)
Assessor: Andrew Cole (Australia)