1
Rugby Australia's $2 million fight to sign 16-year-old NRL prodigy
Rugby Australia (RA) have been shown a glimmer of hope in their unlikely battle to sign a 16-year-old schoolboy star, who looks poised to sign with an NRL club.
ADVERTISEMENT
Joseph Suaalii, a Year 11 student at The King’s School in Sydney, is the subject of a mega-deal in rugby league circles that would make him the richest teenager in the history of the NRL.
Despite significant interest from RA, reports have linked the Australian Schools and U18 representative to the South Sydney Rabbitohs on a four-year deal worth $2 million.
Sualii, who has represented New South Wales at age-grade level in rugby union, rugby league, AFL and basketball, began playing for his school’s 1st XV at the age of 14, and had represented his state’s and country’s U18 sevens teams before his 16th birthday.
Reports indicate incoming Wallabies head coach Dave Rennie offered the 1.97m behemoth a three-year contract with the Waratahs from when he turns 18, but it appears Sualii is on the precipice of pledging his allegiance to the 13-man code.
Set to earn $500,000-per-season, the Waratahs Academy member is said to be viewed as South Sydney’s long-term replacement to star fullback Latrell Mitchell, but RA haven’t given up hope yet.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Sualii isn’t exclusively committed to the Rabbitohs until his 17th birthday, and won’t be eligible to play first-grade rugby league until next year.
ADVERTISEMENT
With that in mind, RA is hoping a possible tilt at an Olympics gold medal in sevens at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which have been postponed by a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, could be enough to sway the cross-code phenomenon.
Had the Olympics not been delayed, Sualii would have been too young to compete at the event that was initially scheduled to kick-off next month.
Although he won’t have turned 18 until shortly after the closing ceremony of next year’s Games, the Herald reports that RA officials are confident Sualii would be cleared to compete after having previously been granted a handful of special dispensations for other 17-year-old athletes to play in open-grade sevens competitions.
“I hope rugby plays on its strengths,” Australian Schools and U18 coach Peter Hewat, who last year included Sualii in his squad that defeated their New Zealand counterparts for the first time in seven years, said.
ADVERTISEMENT
“At their age their careers could span Olympics, a tour against the [British and Irish] Lions and the next three World Cups. Without putting pressure on them, that would be a pretty big carrot for me as a young player.”
The Waratahs coach is calling for Rugby Australia to pursue a trans-Tasman Super Rugby competition with the New Zealand clubs next year.https://t.co/N5fftRoCmJ
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) June 8, 2020
RA could look to New Zealand Rugby for inspiration in terms of snatching teenagers from under the noses of NRL clubs after they managed to lure a teenaged Etene Nanai-Seturo despite him having already signed a deal with the Warriors.
At the age of 15, the electric outside back had signed a five-year deal with the Auckland-based NRL club in 2015, but continued to play both codes at an elite level during his high school years.
The 2017 New Zealand Schoolboys representative then controversially played in two World Sevens Series tournaments for the All Blacks Sevens two years ago while still under contract with the Warriors.
The year beforehand, the player’s lawyers had sent a letter of resignation to the Warriors, claiming the contract he signed as a 15-year-old wasn’t binding due to the age that he committed to the deal.
Both NZR and the Warriors came to an agreement shortly after Nanai-Seturo’s appearances at the Hamilton and Sydney Sevens tournaments, with the league side releasing him under terms and conditions that have remained confidential.
Nanai-Seturo has since gone on to play for the All Blacks Sevens over 60 times, winning the gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and has played for Counties Manukau and the Chiefs in the Mitre 10 Cup and Super Rugby.
Comments on RugbyPass
An on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to comments