diff --git a/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-actuator-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/actuate/autoconfigure/observation/web/client/ClientObservationConventionAdapter.java b/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-actuator-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/actuate/autoconfigure/observation/web/client/ClientObservationConventionAdapter.java
index 6466202b8a0e..0f3230a5bf8a 100644
--- a/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-actuator-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/actuate/autoconfigure/observation/web/client/ClientObservationConventionAdapter.java
+++ b/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-actuator-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/actuate/autoconfigure/observation/web/client/ClientObservationConventionAdapter.java
@@ -55,19 +55,14 @@ public boolean supportsContext(Observation.Context context) {
 
 	@Override
 	public KeyValues getLowCardinalityKeyValues(ClientRequestObservationContext context) {
-		mutateClientRequest(context);
-		Iterable<Tag> tags = this.tagsProvider.tags(context.getRequest(), context.getResponse(), context.getError());
+		ClientRequest request = context.getRequest();
+		if (request == null) {
+			request = context.getCarrier().attribute(URI_TEMPLATE_ATTRIBUTE, context.getUriTemplate()).build();
+		}
+		Iterable<Tag> tags = this.tagsProvider.tags(request, context.getResponse(), context.getError());
 		return KeyValues.of(tags, Tag::getKey, Tag::getValue);
 	}
 
-	private void mutateClientRequest(ClientRequestObservationContext context) {
-		// WebClientExchangeTagsProvider relies on a request attribute to get the URI
-		// template, we need to adapt to that.
-		ClientRequest clientRequest = ClientRequest.from(context.getRequest())
-				.attribute(URI_TEMPLATE_ATTRIBUTE, context.getUriTemplate()).build();
-		context.setRequest(clientRequest);
-	}
-
 	@Override
 	public KeyValues getHighCardinalityKeyValues(ClientRequestObservationContext context) {
 		return KeyValues.empty();
diff --git a/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-actuator-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/actuate/autoconfigure/observation/web/client/ClientObservationConventionAdapterTests.java b/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-actuator-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/actuate/autoconfigure/observation/web/client/ClientObservationConventionAdapterTests.java
index 6740fd4154ae..6df42c00939f 100644
--- a/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-actuator-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/actuate/autoconfigure/observation/web/client/ClientObservationConventionAdapterTests.java
+++ b/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-actuator-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/actuate/autoconfigure/observation/web/client/ClientObservationConventionAdapterTests.java
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
 import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.client.ClientRequest;
 import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.client.ClientRequestObservationContext;
 import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.client.ClientResponse;
+import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.client.WebClient;
 
 import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
 
@@ -45,7 +46,8 @@ class ClientObservationConventionAdapterTests {
 	private ClientObservationConventionAdapter convention = new ClientObservationConventionAdapter(TEST_METRIC_NAME,
 			new DefaultWebClientExchangeTagsProvider());
 
-	private ClientRequest.Builder requestBuilder = ClientRequest.create(HttpMethod.GET, URI.create("/resource/test"));
+	private ClientRequest.Builder requestBuilder = ClientRequest.create(HttpMethod.GET, URI.create("/resource/test"))
+			.attribute(WebClient.class.getName() + ".uriTemplate", "/resource/{name}");
 
 	private ClientResponse response = ClientResponse.create(HttpStatus.OK).body("foo").build();
 
@@ -55,7 +57,6 @@ class ClientObservationConventionAdapterTests {
 	void setup() {
 		this.context = new ClientRequestObservationContext();
 		this.context.setCarrier(this.requestBuilder);
-		this.context.setRequest(this.requestBuilder.build());
 		this.context.setResponse(this.response);
 		this.context.setUriTemplate("/resource/{name}");
 	}
@@ -73,6 +74,14 @@ void shouldOnlySupportClientObservationContext() {
 
 	@Test
 	void shouldPushTagsAsLowCardinalityKeyValues() {
+		this.context.setRequest(this.requestBuilder.build());
+		assertThat(this.convention.getLowCardinalityKeyValues(this.context)).contains(KeyValue.of("status", "200"),
+				KeyValue.of("outcome", "SUCCESS"), KeyValue.of("uri", "/resource/{name}"),
+				KeyValue.of("method", "GET"));
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	void doesNotFailWithEmptyRequest() {
 		assertThat(this.convention.getLowCardinalityKeyValues(this.context)).contains(KeyValue.of("status", "200"),
 				KeyValue.of("outcome", "SUCCESS"), KeyValue.of("uri", "/resource/{name}"),
 				KeyValue.of("method", "GET"));