Queensland won’t fall into the same trap as the Western Force and will deliberately keep the ball away from Israel Folau in Saturday night’s Super Rugby grudge match with NSW.
Scheming Reds halves Will Genia and Quade Cooper have both vowed not to kick to Wallabies teammate Folau, who scorched the Force for three tries in Sunday’s 43-21 win at Allianz Stadium.
Rather than keep the ball away from the game-breaking Waratah, the Force repeatedly kicked in his direction and then struggled to keep him contained.
Cooper denied the presence of Folau would completely stop the Reds from kicking for territory but said he’d aim for open paddock to limit his damage.
Genia went further to say that there is little chance he would be box-kicking to set up high-ball contests for the freakish fullback.
“Out of every 10 contests he would win 10 of them,” Genia said.
The Wallabies halfback admits he was stunned with how good the code-hopping Folau was in his debut season of rugby in 2013 but expects him to only continue to get better in his second year.
The Reds came through their season-opening 27-17 win over the Brumbies unscathed to be in good shape to take on their traditional rivals in the Bob Templeton Cup clash in Sydney.
