LONG READ Ripper of a performance but Wallabies must ensure it’s not another one-off

So Australian rugby is now all fixed, right? The Wallabies’ 42-37 win over England, ending a losing streak against their old rivals that went back to the 2015 Rugby World Cup, has presumably solved all remaining issues in the game in Australia. The rivers of gold should start flowing this week.

If winning really does change everything, then the Wallabies might be the change agents with the best possible highlights clips.

The pithy add-on here might be that it only took the five-million-dollar, high-profile repatriation of a schoolboy prodigy from rugby league to spark the change. But what a performance it was.

“I’ve enjoyed some good moments over 25 years of coaching but that might just take the cake. Brilliant,” said Laurie Fisher, the Wallabies assistant coach and colloquial godfather of Australian rugby, on social media minutes after the match.

Certainly, it would have to rank as the best win for the current playing group. It was exactly the performance Wallabies fans had hoped was there somewhere among the incremental improvements, but that the team itself had only teased in spasmodic displays in 2024. Nothing in the last four or five seasons that might top it readily springs to mind.

“Oh man, it’s up there!” was Allan Ala’alatoa’s mother-of-all-understatement response, to the question of where the win rates for the players.

“I think the only one out of the playing group in that change room who’s beaten England at Twickenham was ‘Slips’ (James Slipper), so everyone else wearing that jersey, that’s their first taste of victory here. It just proves how hard it is to beat England here.”

Angus Bell was a colossus up front, carrying the ball superbly and busting tackles for fun, and showed a deft set of hands at times as well

And the most satisfying part of this win was that there were great performances across the board, from sideline to sideline, starting team to bench. For every Wallabies fan suggesting Rob Valetini was Australia’s best, there’s another one saying it was Len Ikitau, and two more separately pushing for Angus Bell and Fraser McReight.

In fact, it was such a team performance from Australia that prop Taniela Tupou might have been the only player who perhaps didn’t have the best time of it. His was a patchy showing, with every good thing he did undermined by some questionable decision-making at times. But if he can lift his game to match the rest of the team, then the Wallabies will be the big winners again.

Bell was a colossus up front, carrying the ball superbly and busting tackles for fun, and showed a deft set of hands at times as well. All that would be impressive enough in your standard front-rower shift of plus-or-minus 50 minutes, but the match clock read 70:31 when James Slipper ran on to replace the young loosehead.

It was a phenomenal shift for a prop in the modern game.

Valetini, similarly, put in what is fast becoming a bog-standard Valetini performance, which is to say he was absolutely outstanding. When Australia need their ball carriers to stand up and make metres, Valetini is very often the first or second carrier to charge into waiting (and fretting) defenders, and very often makes those metres beyond the first point of contact.

This was the case again at Twickenham and coupled with the quick ruck ball the Wallabies enjoyed throughout the game, so many attacking raids were launched off the back of platforms created by a Valetini carry.

Schmidt was quick to throw McReight and Wallabies skipper Harry Wilson into the mix when discussing Valetini’s performance, and it’s very clear he has found himself the back row that he can build an Australian team around.

“I was delighted with the loose trio… I thought Rob Valetini got gain line, Harry Wilson got gain line,” he said.

“They were really combative and Fraser McReight was a fantastic link for us up that left-hand touchline toward the end, through the middle another time. He was a guy in the right position to handle the ball and move it on.

“I think between the tight five and the middies and edges, that loose trio were outstanding.”

In his whole International and Super Rugby career, Ikitau has only worn the No.12 jersey once, and you have to go all the way back to the aborted pre-Covid 2020 season, where he played inside Tevita Kuridrani at outside centre for the Brumbies early that season.

Long regarded as one of the best defensive 13s in the game, Ikitau has thrived on the slightly extra time and space that he enjoys in the outside channel. Moving him in one spot to accommodate Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii was therefore going to carry risk, and it was clearly geared more toward creating some degree of familiarity for the young league convert on debut, rather than capitalising on any particular strengths of Ikitau.

But such was the fist he made of playing inside centre for the first time in five full seasons, Ikitau might not return to his favoured 13 jersey anytime soon.

One of the defining images of the Wallabies’ celebrations had Suaalii embracing Ikitau as he stood in midfield screaming to the heavens with joy

He certainly made life easy for Suaalii, but Ikitau added starch to the central defence and directness to the attack in the middle corridors, which in turn drew English defenders in and created more space for Suaalii and the outside backs to thrive out wider.

In truth, Ikitau and Suaalii swapped between the 12 and 13 channels throughout the match, especially in attack, and it’s already clear these two could have a prosperous career ahead of them as a centre pairing regardless of the numbers on their backs.

One of the defining images of the Wallabies’ celebrations had Suaalii embracing Ikitau as he stood in midfield screaming to the heavens with joy, having just thrown the flick-pass to put Max Jorgensen away down the left wing to score the winning try.

Jorgensen is surrounded and embraced by triumphant team-mates in the background, but the sight of Ikitau and Suaalii in ecstatic jubilation, celebrating that overwhelming moment of victory together, will remain one of the great Wallabies images for a while yet.

Tom Wright and Andrew Kellaway were certainly among this group of Australia’s best players as well, and my recent conversation with Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham about Wright came flooding back as the full-back opened up another opposition defence at will.

Kellaway, too, was fantastic throughout the game, and showed a welcome turn of speed when running away from the desperate English defenders to score and regain the lead in the 75^th minute. The former Melbourne Rebel has long been among the Wallabies’ most dependable and consistent players over the last few seasons, and being in the right square metre of grass as Ollie Lawrence spilt a George Ford pass was just reward.

Suaalii looks like a rugby player. And that didn’t look like his first game of rugby in several years.

Of this collection of players, you could flip a coin between Bell and Valetini as Australia’s best player, and the cases for other players are strong too. But the point is actually not who was the Wallabies’ best, but rather that there were so many well-performing players to choose from. That’s not always been the case over the course of the last few seasons, but long may it continue from here.

Which brings us to the obligatory praise of Suaalii on debut. Even in my small corner of the Australian sports media, I’m required to make mention of how good he was, despite being on debut, despite having not played rugby in several years, despite having only had a couple of training sessions in his new sport, etc, etc.

I could rate him anywhere in the range of ‘has plenty of upside’ up to ‘greatest debut in the history of sport, ever’ but I’m not going to follow the Australian player ratings on these pages which gave him a 9.5, noting “not just the best Wallaby on the pitch, the best player”.

Don’t get me wrong, he was very, very good. It’s clear the rugby instincts are still very strong, and that his fundamentals and muscle memories remain in place. It is absolutely exciting to think of the player he can be.

So I’ll just repeat the same compliment I gave on the 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast after the match: He looks like a rugby player. And that didn’t look like his first game of rugby in several years.

Suaalii will take plenty of confidence from the win over England, as well he should, as should the whole Wallabies squad as they ramp up preparations for Wales this week.

After an up-and-down series of performances through The Rugby Championship, they will have arrived in Cardiff and will run out at the Principality Stadium with a very welcome addition to the team luggage: untapped confidence.

After winning the way they did in London, there will be a feeling of invincibility within the camp this week, that nothing Wales can throw at them can possibly stop them. If England couldn’t stop them with multiple attempts, then surely a Welsh side the Wallabies have already beaten twice this year can’t stop them either.

With maybe no more than four Tests before Australia face the Lions in Brisbane next July, there just won’t be room for anyone to think any job is done

But with that confidence comes two other variables they have to contend with – expectation, and possible complacency.

The former is something they should embrace; they should expect to play that well again themselves. The latter is something I just can’t see Joe Schmidt letting creep into their preparations.

One swallow doesn’t make a summer and all that. But with maybe no more than four Tests before Australia face the British & Irish Lions in Brisbane next July, there just won’t be room for anyone to think any job is done.

Indeed, Schmidt said post-match at Twickenham that every piece of analysis and preparation is being done with an eye toward the Lions tour next year.

The Wallabies should, and will, play with well-earned confidence this week. But it’s up to them to make sure their memorable England win is not yet another one-off.