‘I don’t think it’s fair’: McKellar backs Waratahs centre Suaalii

NSW Waratahs coach Dan McKellar has hit back at criticism and scrutiny surrounding Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii as an outside centre, who has been named in the midfield for this weekend’s must-win clash with the Highlanders in Dunedin.

Suaalii made a couple of appearances early in the Super Rugby Pacific season before suffering an injury ahead of the Waratahs’ match against the Hurricanes in Sydney. The 22-year-old spent more than one month on the sidelines before returning in round 12.

The Waratahs announced last week that Suaalii had been named at outside centre, which is the same position the code-hopper has played for the Wallabies. Suaalii was ranked 35^th overall for total carries against the Force, running the ball a few times in the 20-17 defeat.

Former Wallabies Morgan Turinui and Michael Hooper have since suggested Suaalii should move to the back three, but coach McKellar has retained the same outside backs trio of Sid Harvey, Max Jorgensen and Andrew Kellaway.

“It’s just with his profile and obviously everything else that comes with that, he’s scrutinised from one week to the next. The other thing is, he came back from two months out injured. Not too many players come back from two months out and hit the ground running,” McKellar told reporters, when asked about the scrutiny surrounding Suaalii.

“There was certainly a plan in place, I think we showed that with our intent from the very first whistle around how we wanted to get him into the game. Unfortunately, the Force did a really good job of squeezing us and making us come out of our end.

“The plan was to play him for 60 minutes. We finally got some ball in the last five minutes and showed what we could do, that was the disappointing part.

“I don’t think it’s fair but it comes with the territory I suppose.”

Suaalii started at fullback in all but one appearance for the Waratahs last season, earning Team of the Year honours ahead of others like Tom Wright and Will Jordan. But when the international season rolled around, ‘Su’ lined up in the midfield alongside Len Ikitau.

While Suaalii’s performance against the Force has been a big talking point ahead of round 13, McKellar has called on the Waratahs as a collective to play with “more spark and energy” when they have the ball in hand.

“When you attempt 349 tackles, you look at our tackle statistics, I think Andrew Kellaway made 23 tackles as a winger. Angus Scott-Young made 38 tackles. There’s players off the bench making 20 tackles and there’s reasons for that that we obviously need to address internally,” McKellar explained.

“Then you look at our carry numbers and across the board it was right down. It’s not just about Joseph or anyone individually. We were very conservative on Friday night and we’ve got to play with a little bit more spark and energy around our attack and off the back of that, we play a game that’s a lot more enjoyable to watch and a whole lot more enjoyable to play in.”