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International

Rugby Australia poised to win million-dollar tug-of-war for the teenage whiz branded as 'incredible' by Sam Burgess


(Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
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Rugby Australia are poised to pull off a mighty coup and win the million-dollar tug-of-war for the services of teenage whiz Joseph Suaalii. RA on Tuesday coyly claimed the deal was “not done yet” after reports surfaced that 16-year-old Suaalii was set to turn his back on a $1.7million offer to remain with NRL club South Sydney for three more years.

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Like super-coach Wayne Bennett, Suaalii is contracted to Souths until the end of next season. But the Rabbitohs had hoped to lock down the prodigious talent long term until new Wallabies coach Dave Rennie apparently swooped having hotly pursued Suaalii for Rugby Australia since first trying to sign him in February.

With Souths unable to register the contract with the NRL until Suaalii turned 17 on August 1, Rennie and RA time have seemingly talked the teenager into a late change of heart. But cash-strapped RA has denied promising Suaalii $1m a year.

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A gifted all-round sportsman who has also excelled at AFL and basketball, Suaalii stands a towering 196cm and weighs 96kg and spent the off-season training with the Rabbitohs NRL squad.

Souths great turned assistant coach Sam Burgess last month hailed the hulk as incredible. “Look, I hate rapping young kids,” Burgess told Fox Sports.

“I’ve seen him first-hand, training with the first team and forget his athletic ability, what I saw inside Joseph Suaalii that day, I saw (how) we took him to the edge of the cliff and he hung on for dear life and he had the courage of a 25- to a 28-year-old man.”

The Rabbitohs offered AAP a “no comment” when contacted on Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, former Super Rugby chiefs boss Rennie has suggested his successor as Wallabies coach should ideally be Australian. “The ideal scenario is that the next coach is Australian and there needs to be some thought around that,” he told The Australian. 

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“If there is someone ready to go after the (2023) World Cup, that may be in the best interests of Australian rugby. You can’t think too far ahead in this game. I’m fully committed to the (2023) World Cup but what happens beyond that… there has to be an emphasis around identifying and developing other coaches to coach Australia.”

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Comments on RugbyPass

C
Conrad 5 minutes ago
There's only one selection that truly matters for the All Blacks this July

Fair but I would risk it for a biscuit.

Him and Richie! Ahhh



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H
Hammer Head 5 minutes ago
Losing to Henry Pollock would be unbearable

They will be, but they must focus on getting the job done. Not Henry pollock. Or anything else for that matter.

15 Go to comments
H
Hammer Head 6 minutes ago
Losing to Henry Pollock would be unbearable

Hope you’re right!

15 Go to comments
H
Hammer Head 19 minutes ago
Losing to Henry Pollock would be unbearable

Apart from maybe losing RG Snyman in his normal role off the bench, the lock department can’t really be described as threadbare for this test. So I don’t think that’s a real vulnerability.

Manie Libbok has been at 80% in Japan League One this year. And already showed, before he left SA, that his technique had improved with the shorter run up.



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L
Lou Cifer 26 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

Exactly! should’ve probably been 2+ penalty tries awarded

35 Go to comments
N
NoLongerARuck 29 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

Yeah plus when you kick a pen the ball comes back off the kick off and you then have to exit so it makes sense to go for the corner and look for a try because you keep the possession and territory and keep the pressure up.

35 Go to comments
N
NoLongerARuck 32 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

For sure. The games down South are always Skewed towards the Southern teams because the Northern sides are coming off a long season where they have already played 10 internationals and have been going for 10 months. Even so though the South do win when they similarly go up North in just as trying conditions so the Northern sides must really get better and improve their end of season mentality

35 Go to comments
C
Conrad 33 minutes ago
Where's the power? And what to do with Sua'ali'i? The key questions facing the Wallabies

Yeah. They need it.

I'm Irish but I got a great bounce watching the wallabies in the lions tests. Definite potential.



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33 Go to comments
N
NoLongerARuck 35 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

I think hes done plenty of articles before about speed of game, ball in play time, pens etc in the Southern context and the North are now seemingly ahead in terms of key metrics that determine the quality of game especially those that World Rugby are after in terms of creating more value for fans

35 Go to comments
C
Conrad 36 minutes ago
Where's the power? And what to do with Sua'ali'i? The key questions facing the Wallabies

Plenty would say that. When he first came to Leinster the guy ended careers. Overnight.

33 Go to comments
N
NoLongerARuck 36 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

England were really awful on defence that game, were shellshocked half way through it

35 Go to comments
C
Conrad 38 minutes ago
Where's the power? And what to do with Sua'ali'i? The key questions facing the Wallabies

Toner was treated terribly. Nobody would call him world class but he had to have been one of the most improved players at test level for a period. He was the only reason the 2016 SA tour was even close. Awful treatment in the end.

Henshaw has spoken about being the 24th man early on and accompanying the sqaud on tours. Schmidt would still expect non-playing sqaud memebrs to be able to talk him through all the set plays when he asked them. If you couldn't, it was never overlooked.



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GrahamVF 38 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

In all fairness the ref backed off giving penalties and after the pack had marched the Irish pack backwards on the double for ten meters then folded he tol the Bok scrummie “Play it.”

The psychological advantage of being so comprehensively dismantled in the scrums is huge. You can fix missed tackles and sloppy attack - even fix high ball skills - but it’s far more difficult to fix an entire scrum when they are that comprehensively beaten. And that’s what Rassie’s aim was - not necessarily scoreboard dominance but to send the message if you want to play on the same field as us you had better fix your scrum. Like I said - not so easily done.



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NoLongerARuck 40 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

How do you judge the North South battle and if the North is catching the South? I think theres a couple of categories to consider. In the early 2000’s the South was ahead on almost every category that determines the quality of rugby playing region. I would say the categories are:

Coaching



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GrahamVF 44 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

“Having opened it up coincided with a massive uplift in the success of the Springboks.” That and the development of black and Coloured players. A huge previously untapped resource to the Springboks.

35 Go to comments
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GrahamVF 46 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

“The North arguably offers more in terms of entertainment than the South at club level as well. The Prem, the Champs Cup, URC and Top 14 all feature plenty of scoring and different playing styles while Super Rugby seems to be the same thing game in game out. While the South tries to speed up the game artificially with new trials and law variations the North has shown you can do it with good refereeing which penalises cynical play harshly and encourages positive actions on the field.”

Great para and sums it up perfectly. In SA we were sooooo tired of the endless 26 phase going nowhere or backwards cycles of Super Rugby the URC came as a breath of fresh air. We were back to the various elements that make rugby stand out from league. Scrum, ruck, lineout, maul - variety fGs



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NoLongerARuck 54 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

The Six Nations produced so many compelling games and so much of action packed moments that you can only conclude that its the best international comp out there at the moment except for a world cup. If Wales improve it will be even better especially given the strides Italy have made in recent times. The Rugby Championship is now taking a hiatus in a year it really should be building toward something better which is terrible considering the competition was so tight last year. The Nations Champs promises much but one gets the feeling that the 6 Nations teams will not be at their peak given its at the end of their long season. In terms of rugby quality and entertainment Id rather watch the 6 Nations over everything else other than a world cup right now. The North arguably offers more in terms of entertainment than the South at club level as well. The Prem, the Champs Cup, URC and Top 14 all feature plenty of scoring and different playing styles while Super Rugby seems to be the same thing game in game out. While the South tries to speed up the game artificially with new trials and law variations the North has shown you can do it with good refereeing which penalises cynical play harshly and encourages positive actions on the field. In terms of entertainment the North wins. In terms of winning? They are making strides but until they win another world cup or get a team to rank number 1 again for an extended time again they cant really say they are better than the South.

35 Go to comments
C
Conrad 55 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

Agree. In the end, they had to resort to starting off the ball stuff at 77 mins to rattle Ireland and run the clock as it was only a two score game - which is insane given their dominance.

I suspect Rassie may have gone hard on them afterwards.



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35 Go to comments
C
Conrad 57 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

Agree. Tournament play or a knockout game I’m sure they would be nailing their kicks instead.

Even conservatively, they left 12-15 PTS behind which is strange as they should have been worth double that by getting their opponents down to 12 players.



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C
Conrad 1 hour ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

It’s noticeable that most NH test teams now refuse to kick for goal until maybe the 3rd or 4th time of asking across the same phases of play. It’s such a trend that they have to be coached that way now.

I think the amended rules around playing the 9 - or not being able to - have helped things as the teams seem to prefer kicking 50/50 constestables or going multi-phase in the opponents 22. The 6N teams generally have tempo 9’s that are hitting 70+ rucks a match, so it suits them.



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35 Go to comments
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