He will be thrown in at the deep end against England at Twickenham. These are the areas that will determine whether Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii succeeds or fails.
But how will he perform in the midfield? It certainly won’t be a referendum on his natural attributes – everyone saw what an athlete he is when he got to the edge in the NRL.
Suaalii is unusually tall for a midfielder and won’t be able to get low in every tackle, especially against stocky England midfielder Ollie Lawrence. But if he falls into the NRL practice of standing upright in contact, England will expose him with some lateral movement. And old habits die hard, especially under fatigue.There has been some talk about Suaalii defending in the No.12 channel instead of No.13, but there’s no real hiding place in Test rugby.
And, as the Wallabies typically move Noah Lolesio out of the line on first-phase defence in their own territory, the responsibility of defending the inside channels against hard carries falls to either blindside winger, or the No.12, or both.Suaalii hasn’t been picked to kick the ball away, but any midfielder who doesn’t have the option in their locker is incomplete.
But the other key player for Suaalii will be fullback Tom Wright. The Wallabies like to use a shape where Wright sits behind a wider pod of forwards as the team’s second playmaker. It’s how they attacked the All Blacks from restarts in Wellington.
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