LONG READ 'Move Sua'ali'i to 15 - Rugby Australia cannot afford another unfulfilled talent'

“I guarantee he will come back at some stage. They all come back.” Those were the words of NRL legend Andrew Johns when teenager Joseph-Aukuso Sua’ali’i packed his bags, turned his back on rugby league and headed for the unknown hills of the sister code in March 2023. It was Australian rugby’s most spectacular gamble on any player in history.

The Rugby Australia chairman who brokered the deal with Sua’ali’i’s agent Isaac Moses was dismissed summarily only eight months later after a disastrous World Cup campaign. Hamish McLennan’s knee-jerk appointment of Eddie Jones as head coach brought his judgement into question, and the organisation as a whole into something approaching international disrepute.

“Before he pulls on a jumper he has generated over $50 million worth of publicity for rugby. The first time he plays for the Waratahs in front of a full house, he pays for himself. It’s a no-brainer,” claimed McLennan at the time. The truth is far more inconvenient. Three years later, supporters of Australian rugby are still waiting for the deal to show any obvious dividend.

The incremental spend on RA’s five-million-dollar man needs to be justified: reportedly AUD $1.6m in his first year, rising to $1.8m in the current season and $1.95m in World Cup year. As if that was not enough, another report in the Sydney Morning Herald revealed Sua’ali’i has a hidden clause which, if activated, means he could stay on contract for five years instead of three and bank an extra AUD $4m up until 2029.

For that kind of money, rugby folk in Australia need to be getting much more bang for their mega-bucks. At the very least, they ought to be seeing the kind of clear improvement which suggests Sua’ali’i is the kind of man a World Cup-winning team can be built around. Right now, it is not happening. There have been some promising sprigs of new growth, but the fact remains Suaalii’s most impressive performance in the green and gold was his debut against England in November 2024.

While the player himself has been engagingly frank about the best position to showcase his talents – “footy is footy – it’s just about playing” – the most fundamental of questions still awaits an answer. As a leaguer, he played 35 times in the back-three, as either a wing or full-back, and 40 times in the centre. In his rugby career to date with the Wallabies and the Waratahs, he has started 22 times in the 13 jersey and on six occasions at number 15.

Four days after his outstanding performance against England, I concluded we were seeing a nascent star rising in the rugby firmament, but a luminary who would shine most brightly at full-back. I repeated the call before the second Test against the British and Irish Lions last July, and some influential Australian coaches and ex-Wallabies have joined the growing chorus.

At the end of last year, Harlequins head coach Jason Gilmore opined, “I coached Joey in the Australian U18s and he was on the wing there. I think his best attribute is [in the] wide channel because he is such a good aerial exponent.”

The choir ensemble went full-blown ‘Band Aid’ with the addition of Morgan Turinui and Michael Hooper after the Waratahs’ loss to the Crusaders last week.

“I think it’s time to shelve that 13 experiment [for Sua’ali’i],” said Turinui. “I understand at the Wallabies it might be different, but at the Waratahs they’ve got to be somewhat selfish, or more than selfish now.

“It’s not just about how many touches he gets, it’s the situation of those touches. He’s just got to find some space. I think he’s very much a get-the-ball-in-his-hands-early guy, and let him create.

“I’m not sure he’s a hit-the-line, hit-the-hole-hard [ball-carrier] – and then he’s going to carry over with three guys hanging off him, get us over the gain line, we play off the back.

“That’s the way I’d do it. I haven’t seen any evidence to change my mind.”

Hooper added: “Beating that drum again, you’ve got to take into context we aren’t in there week to week, we aren’t privy to the conversations that are going on.

“We’re just going off what we’re seeing. And what we’re seeing, and what we’ve seen from other players who are similar builds and similar athlete profiles to him, would be more suited to a different position.”

The comments from Turinui and Hooper came after a defeat where Sua’ali’i had minimal involvements at 13 in his first game returning from injury. Saturday’s loss to the Highlanders allowed the theory to be tested against a ‘good game’, with the ex-Sydney Rooster fully fit and acclimatised and operating against 14 men for 50 minutes.

Both of the home side’s centres, Timoci Tavatavanawai and Jonah Nareki, were carded during the game – ‘Big Jim’ for 10 minutes in the first period and Nareki for 20 in the second – but Sua’ali’i’s stats on attack were nonetheless impressive: 13 carries for 153m, with 69 of those metres after initial contact had been made with a tacker; one try, two clean breaks, six tackle busts and two offloads for good measure.

Of Sua’ali’i’s six most significant attacking involvements, four occurred with one of either Tavatavanawai or Nareki off the field, and the ex-leaguer functioning effectively as a full-back in the manner described by Turinui.

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) May 10, 2026

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) May 10, 2026

In both clips Sua’ali’i is running in space, with defenders reacting to his movement and looking to cover laterally. These are moments where he is getting the ball in his hands early and creating, picking the right pass at the right time to do the job. The same theme was amplified by the following sequence from the next kick-off receipt, with Big Jim still off the field on his yellow card.

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) May 10, 2026

Angle Sua’ali’i towards the corner flag on runs in plenty of space rather than traffic, and you will see the best of him. Yes, he does have the strength to cut inside against a defence which is in the process of scrambling back to shape, or one-one-one against an offset tackler, but that should not be his first priority as an attacking force.

He played the ‘hit-the-line, hit-the-hole-hard’ role successfully on one occasion, beating Tavatavanawai rather too easily for comfort on the inside to set up another break for Sid Harvey.

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) May 10, 2026

The underlying poser for Australian rugby is the fact the strengths and weaknesses in Sua’ali’i’s game are the same now as they were against England all the way back in November 2024. They have not developed substantially because he is playing the wrong position for his talents.

The lack of nous in contact situations observed in the Lions series is still present.

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) May 10, 2026

In another piece written after the November tour in 2025, the defensive difficulties yet to be resolved at number 13 were highlighted.

One step out of the line equals one stride short of getting on terms with UBB flyer Louis Bielle-Biarrey. One mis-step, and you don’t quite make it.

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) December 18, 2025

At Twickenham in 2024, Sua’ali’i completed four of his eight tackles. Against the Landers he made five of eight, with two misses on the upfield rush leading directly to the home side’s first score of the game.

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) May 10, 2026

That is not Test-quality judgement in defence by a number 13 who wants to play international rugby in that position, and it happens twice in two plays.

The other hidden conundrum is an error of omission, and it is also underscored by the range of Sua’ali’i’s performance against England back in 2024: mixed in among his four successful offloads, two break assists and one try assist, there were four kick-offs either reclaimed, or with an error forced on the receipt by the strength of his challenge in the air. Versus the Highlanders there were none at all.

It stands to reason one of the best aerial exponents in the world will get his hands on the ball far more regularly from wing or full-back than he can from 13. It is likewise glaringly obvious Sua’ali’i’s defensive reads and work in contact have not improved sufficiently to justify the annual raises in salary, let alone a potential two-year contract extension if the Wallabies continue to deploy him at centre.

If Rugby Australia wants to prove McLennan right and Johns wrong, it has to roll the league star back to the heartbeat of the team at number 15, centre-field. With a home World Cup in 2027, Rugby Australia cannot afford another unfulfilled talent, another unfinished league conversion. Carpe Diem.