RugbyJP.com<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019ve absolutely loved my time in Japan.\u201d
\n
<\/p>\nAfter seven years in Osaka, Genia feels the time is right to move back to his homeland and is keen to explore further coaching opportunities in the future.
\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve really enjoyed coaching,\u201d said the 2011 Super Rugby and Tri-Nations winner.
\n
<\/p>\n
Genia actually played for his hometown side Valley Hunters in a trial match (below) during a League One off-week in March and plans to continue helping to nurture his country\u2019s next generation of talent.
\n
<\/p>\n
![\"Genia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1977eb_9b9632a23ce04230b3cb04cb4c3c05e1~mv2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Genia in action for his hometown club in PNG in March<\/p>\n
\u201cI will definitely help out my club back home when I\u2019m there,” added the 110-cap veteran.
\n
<\/p>\n
Genia is an ambassador for the Valley Hunters club, who play in the Capital Rugby Union competition, and are coached by his older brother Frank.
\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWill recently featured for us in a trial match as part of his ongoing support for grassroots rugby in PNG,\u201d a club spokesman told RugbyJP.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1977eb_ed9d51c910e54303a745712bdcee9424~mv2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring his breaks between coaching commitments in Japan, Will spent time in PNG supporting the club. Together with his brother Frank, they\u2019ve played a key role in the club\u2019s rise from wooden spooners to back-to-back premiers in 2024 and 2025.
\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cOff the field, Will also supports the club in an ambassador role, especially through initiatives that use rugby to give back to the community. One of those is our \u2018Heart of Rugby\u2019 program, where we help raise funds for Operation Open Heart Foundation PNG and the work they do supporting children in need of life-saving heart surgery. <\/p>\n
“He was part of that last year alongside Matt Giteau and Henry Speight, helping drive both the fundraising and partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wallabies legend Will Genia will return to his native Papua New Guinea when he leaves Japanese second division…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-685366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\u00a9](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1977eb_f60d2b3236b845e3ba48bdd365499efc~mv2.png\")
<\/p>\n