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Former Wallabies react to Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii’s stunning Test debut

Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii of Australia goes past Ollie Sleightholme, to set up a try for team mate Tom Wright (not in picture) during the Autumn Nations Series 2025 match between England and Australia at Allianz Twickenham Stadium on November 09, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Former Wallaby Stephen Hoiles believes Rugby Australia’s marquee recruit Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii is worth every cent of his multi-year deal. Suaalii hadn’t played Super Rugby or even Shute Shield before donning Wallaby gold but went on to deliver a Test debut for the ages.

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In March last year, Suaalii put pen to paper on a deal reportedly worth $5.3 million to jump codes from the NRL. The then 19-year-old was touted as a generational figure that RA was keen to secure the services of ahead of a decisive period for the sport Down Under.

Suaalii went on to represent Samoa at the Rugby League World Cup and later played seven minutes of State of Origin for New South Wales. But after a recent switch to the 15-player game, the man himself is firmly focused on what lies ahead in Wallaby gold.

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The then-uncapped Wallabies prospect modelled the national team’s jersey for the 2025 British and Irish Lions Series before speaking with reporters in Sydney last month. Suaalii has always wanted to be a Wallaby and is excited by the prospect of playing the Lions next year.

No Australian rugby player has had this level of hype surrounding them in quite some time, but Suaalii appears up to the task. Suaalii debuted in Wallaby gold in last weekend’s 42-37 win over England at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium, receiving Player of the Match honours afterwards.

“It’s a quality signing and it’s at the right price at the moment, I don’t care what people say,” Hoiles said on Stan Sports’ Between Two Posts

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“The value we’ve got off-field, and it’s only been matched in one game, don’t want to get too hyped up about how good he’s going to be but the attributes that he has an individual, it’s going to be very different for teams to start analysing and stopping how he plays.

“Len Ikitau had his best (performance) in a Wallaby jersey for probably two seasons, do you think that’s a coincidence? Or the fact that he’s got a guy like Joseph outside him.

“When you’ve got a player who’s that tall and he’s got an over skip and an overs offload and a basketball offload, I think it just changes so much on the way that teams have to start defending him and we’re in for a really good run with that young man.”

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Suaalii stole the show at the venue formerly known as Twickenham from early on, with the 21-year-old impressing with some quality touches. The Wallaby leapt above England’s Maro Itoje to help the visitors secure a restart early on, which in itself is no easy feat.

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With quick hands and some determined stops on defence, the Wallabies’ latest debutant continued to make his mark. Suaalii’s crowning moment was a brilliant ‘basketball’ offload to Tom Wright to set up Australia’s opening try of the contest.

The influence of Rugby Australia’s big name recruit seemed to have an impact on others wearing Wallaby gold too, including midfield partner Len Ikitau. Ikitau was right up there with the team’s best, which included a stunning flick pass to assist Max Jorgensen’s match-winning try.

“I thought he was great. How do you do that? First game of professional rugby union was great,” four-time John Eales Medallist Michael Hooper went on to explain later in the show.

“His touches, he didn’t get tackled pretty much the whole game, try set up, restarts… that is such a big factor, such a big factor. That leap he did from a mile out, it was like the (Michael) Jordan jump and gets it back.

“It’s actually a safe play to kick to him. It’s high probability you get it back.”

Louis Rees-Zammit joins Jim Hamilton for the latest episode of Walk the Talk to discuss his move to the NFL. Watch now on RugbyPass TV

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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