Michael Cheika will arrive in Brisbane on Friday a marked man and Will Genia is in no mood to apologise for the fact.
A high degree of mutual respect exists between the 58-Test halfback and the Wallabies coach, but that will not dent the "enemy" status the Reds have bestowed on the Waratahs mentor before Saturday's derby clash at Suncorp Stadium.
"At this stage of the season you don't see him as a Wallaby coach," Genia said. "You go out there and just see a blue jersey, he's part of what that jersey represents, so in essence he is the enemy."
Genia met with Cheika during last year's spring tour and has glowing things to say about the new Wallabies coach from that experience. Cheika has had his eye on the Queensland No.9 for a while longer and – with his Wallabies cap on – is no doubt relishing the glimpses of vintage Genia form that the early season rounds have delivered.
But fireside chats aside, with the World Cup still some months down the track and 15 rounds of Super Rugby to navigate, Cheika and his championship-winning Waratahs are nothing but an obstacle for Australia's 2011 IRB Player of the Year nominee.
"He's the Waratahs coach, he's gladly taken on both roles and if you're lucky enough to be selected in the Wallaby group at the end of the year, he'll be the Wallaby coach," Genia said. "But at this stage of the season he'll happily take [the enemy tag] on the chin. He even said that to us on the spring tour, that we will see him as the enemy."
It is not a stretch to say that Cheika is instructing them to see him as the enemy. He asked every member of his Wallabies group at the end of that tour to head home to their provinces and work as hard as they could to destroy each other in the upcoming Super Rugby season.
The challenge was extended to Cheika's provincial counterparts, rooted in a belief that each team competing as hard as they could against each other could do nothing but benefit the Test team.
So there will be few match-ups watched more closely, if retrospectively, by the Wallabies coach than Genia and his NSW counterpart, Nick Phipps. On one side the deposed king of the Wallabies No.9 jersey, whose skill and competitive instinct made him unmatched internationally – for a few golden seasons.
On the other, the Test incumbent, who was forced to bide his time behind Genia and Luke Burgess early on but has taken opportunities to start the past nine Tests at halfback.
Halfbacks, by nature, are among the most competitive characters on a rugby pitch. Phipps believes he has earned every ounce of his incumbency and will continue to do so. Genia, you can't help but sense, is plotting a Tolkien-esque return of the king.
"He plays the way he plays, I play the way I play, we're completely different players," he said when asked if he had learnt anything from Phipps' game. "I don't ever want to be like another player. There's guys that I've looked up to as a young kid growing up – guys like Fourie du Preez, George Gregan, those sorts of players, and you take bits and pieces from their game, but I don't look at Phippsy and think that at all."
