Veteran Wallabies playmaking duo Will Genia and Quade Cooper will join Japan’s Kintetsu Liners following this year’s Rugby World Cup.
The Melbourne Rebels duo, who also played Super Rugby together in Queensland for the Reds, are the latest top players to head to Japan to play club rugby after the country hosts the World Cup.
The Liners, who play in Japan’s second-tier Top Challenge League, said halfback Genia will link up with the club after the World Cup, but five-eighth Cooper, who was not named in the Wallabies’ Rugby Championship squad, could move to Japan as soon as September.
Japan’s domestic league season will begin in January 2020, which is later than usual due to the World Cup, which starts on September 20.
“My aim is to do my best and, through my play, I would like to make this the number one team in Japan,” Genia said in a statement on the club’s website.
The Liners, who are based near Osaka, have never won Japan’s Top League competition since it started in 2004 but did win the amateur All-Japan Championship three times between 1966-1974.
“I will work hard to take the team back to Top League,” added Cooper.
“When we reach the Top League, then I want to contribute more again at that stage.
“I want to challenge rugby in Japan, and I can still contribute on the pitch.”
Fellow Wallaby David Pocock will also return to Japan in 2020 and it was not just Australian players who have been enticed to Japanese rugby next season.
All Blacks Kieran Read, Brodie Retallick and Ryan Crotty will also be heading to Japan, along with South African loose forward Duane Vermeulen.