CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
High profile rugby league convert, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii has been picked for the Wallabies before playing one game of professional rugby union.
The former Sydney Rooster’s NRL star was included in Joe Schmidt’s squad of 34 players named on Tuesday, ahead of a high-pressure Spring Tour of Europe.
It is believed the 21-year-old impressed coaching staff at last week’s training camp in Canberra and has earned himself a seat on the plane London, with a very real possibility of wearing a gold jersey in the opening Test against England at Twickenham on November 10.
After proving himself to be one of the emerging superstars in rugby league, Suaalii didn’t waste any time or youth, before switching to rugby.
It’s a game he is very much familiar with after splitting his junior footballing between rugby league and rugby union, even going as far as making the Aussie schoolboys 7s side in 2018.
The big money offers from rugby union were too much too ignore – even if he does leave the NRL with unfinished business.
He exited the Sydney Roosters this year without a premiership, which is most due to the fact that his three-year stint in the game was taking place at the same time as the Penrith Panthers 4-peat.
As a representative league player, he has six matches for Samoa, and seven minutes for the NSW Blues to his name.
Suaalii’s State Of Origin career was cut short after a screaming head high tackle on Queenslander Reece Walsh in the opening plays of the game I this year.
He was red-carded at the eight minute mark, and given a month’s suspension from the regular season.
While this severe on-field misconduct has been described as a ‘brain snap’ – it was also very funny. Especially for an Origin debutant.
With Suaalii included as a debutant in the 2024 Wallabies squad, he now has the opportunity to do something even funnier.
Do you think the humour of Suaalii nearly decapitating an English rugby union player outweigh the risk to his longevity as an Australian Wallabies star?
