Opinion: ‘Brilliant’ Joseph Suaalii proves he has the potential to be ‘the figurehead of Australian rugby’
Joseph Suaa'li'i shone on debut for the Wallabies
A lot of the talk ahead of England v Australia centred – quite literally – on NRL convert Joseph Suaalii, and he certainly looked comfortable on his return to Union with a brilliant showing.
The cross-code star, who made his NRL debut at just 17 years old, made himself incredibly busy on both sides of the ball, and was never too far away from the action.
Here is our full assessment of his impressive Wallabies debut.
Good
The back certainly had more positive involvements than negative ones. Things got off to a decent start, as he produced a crucial try-saving tackle to deny Tommy Freeman a certain score in the first-half, and this clearly gave him some confidence. Another clear standout moment was his assist for Tom Wright’s score in the opening 40, which was just intelligent play to read the gap.
Aside from these standout moments, he looked a consistent threat ball-in-hand. He has really made a name for himself in the 13-man game for his aerial ability, and this was in full show at Allianz Stadium. Noah Lolesio, Jake Gordon and Tate McDermott’s kicking was on the money for most of the game anyway, but they utilised the former Sydney Roosters star to good effect with some wicked bombs.
He has this lovely blend of genuine athleticism and timing, which allowed him to best the likes of Freeman and gain precious territory to get the Wallabies back into the game.
Elsewhere, his dancing feet and ability to just tweak his angle of running at the line made him such a threat in attack and really helped Australia make some decent in-roads through the defensive line. This in turn created plenty of opportunities for him to get an offload away, and he certainly did that with some delicious passes out the tackle.
Suaalii led the way in the game for offloads, with four, and these played a critical role in getting the likes of Wright, Andrew Kellaway and Dylan Pietsch into the game, and importantly in behind the England defence.
Bad
The only real bad parts of his game came in defence, as he found himself caught out a couple of times on line-breaks, including both Chandler Cunningham-South’s and Ollie Sleightholme’s opening tries. The way you defend at 13 in Union is potentially the most similar to defending at either centre in League, but of course, it’s not a like-for-like thing and he will improve with more game time.
Outside centre is by far the hardest position in the 15-man game to defend at, and considering he’s not played this code for a number of years he looked pretty comfortable.
Moving forward?
The biggest takeaway from Suaalii’s performance is the fact he didn’t look out of place at Test level, which is actually a huge compliment considering he hasn’t played the sport for a number of years. The things he did well, he did really well, and the slightly negative things in his game will be quickly ironed out with more game time.
Moving forward, you would assume he will remain in the starting XV, and could easily make 13 his home for the foreseeable. Australia have deployed a host of players at 13 under Joe Schmidt, but he seems to have found his solution in the form of Suaalii.
Whilst he might line up in that position on paper, the freedom he had today to just float around the park is actually such a good way to use him. He constantly found himself popping up near the ball to keep the plays alive, and more often than not wasn’t actually in the 13 channel.
We should also give a lot of credit to the Wallabies boss for actually backing his man. The easy option would have been to not pick him and save him for a lesser game (when that is at Test level, I’m not sure, but you get the point); however he backed his man and his man rewarded him in turn with a truly exceptional performance.
This might be me getting way too far ahead of myself, but if this performance is anything to go by he will be the figurehead of Australian rugby for the foreseeable.
