No longer wanted by Queensland and the Wallabies, former Storm premiership winner and code-hopper Suliasi Vunivalu is expected to continue his rugby career in France.
‘Seriously impressive’: Rivals floored by Suaalii stunner as ‘freak’ makes rugby ‘look easy’
Joseph Suaalii was Monday hailed as a “freak” by his Australian midfield partner Len Ikitau after an eye-catching performance against England in his first game of professional rugby union.
Joseph-Aukuso Sua’ali’i: from unproven prospect to living out a dream on rugby’s grandest stage | Daniel Gallan
The code-hopper is the talk of the rugby union world after making light of expectations and the occasion at Twickenham on his Wallabies debut
Picture this; you’re 21-years-old, you’ve been the most talked about player in rugby union for a month straight, you’re playing your first senior game, your first of any kind in this code since you were a teenager, and you’ve just stepped out to start for your country at Twickenham, the home of rugby. We all know that elite athletes are cut from a different cloth but it’s worth lingering on the staggering set of circumstances that preceded Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii’s Test debut.
Simply not stinking up the place with a string of errors would have been enough. If he’d managed to hold onto the ball and land a few tackles then Joe Schmidt and Rugby Australia could have argued that there was tangible hope in a return of their substantial investment in this unproven prospect. He looked the part, all 1.98m and 98kg of him. But could he handle the bright lights and weight of expectation? We had our answer shortly before kick-off.
Continue reading...Proof NRL will survive without Suaalii; why Rugby should be thanking league bosses: Crawls
Joseph Suaalii has put to bed any dispute about NRL players being far superior footballers to their rugby union rivals.
‘Australia, don’t waste my time’: Wallabies have last laugh as England great’s sledge backfires
Retired England great Ben Youngs’ sledge of the Wallabies in the lead-up to Australia’s drought-breaking 42-37 win against England at Twickenham backfired spectacularly.
Wallabies coach hails ‘freak’ Suaalii after epic debut as huge selection call vindicated
Australia coach Joe Schmidt hailed Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii as an “aerial freak” after the cross-code capture marked his first senior game of rugby union by starring in the Wallabies’ thrilling 42-37 win over England at Twickenham on Saturday.
Why ‘ominous’ $5m cross code Wallabies debut has England and Lions worried
A code-hopping 21-year-old has announced himself as Australian Rugby’s newest star.
84th-minute mayhem! Wallabies stun England at Twickenham as Joseph Suaalii sends $5m statement
Max Jorgensen’s try in added-on time saw Australia to a stunning 42-37 win over England at Twickenham on Saturday as the Wallabies launched their tour of Britain with a desperately-needed victory.
‘Oh. My. Goodness!’: Australia in delirium as rugby world reacts to ‘one of greatest’ Wallabies wins
What did we just witness? Australian rugby fans — the ones who did not set the alarm for the 2am for kick off — have woken to a stunning win over England at Twickenham on Sunday morning.
England 37-42 Australia: Autumn Nations Series rugby union – as it happened
Max Jorgenson dived over to steal victory for the Wallabies in a classic at Twickenham
Marcus Smith send the ball skywards and deep, the Wallabies deal with it sensibly.
Meanwhile, at the SponsorNameDome Twickenham, the anthems are completed and we’re about to quite literally kick off.
Continue reading...England must turn potential into points in pivotal clash with Australia | Robert Kitson
With hosts stung by agonising losses and Wallabies eager to impress before Lions tour, much is at stake for both sides
Some games shape entire seasons and, for both England and Australia, another one is looming. Nail the Wallabies convincingly and the home side will believe their fortunes are finally reviving. Permit the visitors a morale enhancing first win in south-west London since the 2015 Rugby World Cup, on the other hand, and the horizon will darken swiftly.
England have already lost five of their past seven internationals dating back to Murrayfield in February. Next week the current world champions are due at Twickenham and, after a brief subsequent reunion with Eddie Jones’s Japan, the first two rounds of next year’s Six Nations championship pit Steve Borthwick’s team against, respectively, Ireland and France.
Continue reading...All Blacks in with a shot at five-year first after snapping World No. 1 Ireland’s 19-game win streak
New Zealand ended Ireland’s 19-match winning streak at Lansdowne Road, running out deserved 23-13 victors over the world ranked number one side in a scrappy encounter.
Jamie George’s message to England: we need to be brave and take Australia on
- Captain rallies team to ‘go out and play with courage’
- England are odds-on to beat struggling Wallabies
Jamie George has called on his England side to have the bravery to stick to their guns and go for the jugular against Australia rather than go into their shells after making a losing start to their autumn campaign.
England will be seeking an 11th win in 12 matches against Australia, who arrive at Twickenham ranked ninth in the world, but Steve Borthwick’s side have lost four of their past five matches after slipping to a third straight defeat by the All Blacks last weekend.
Continue reading...England don’t need to close tight games out – they should run teams off the pitch | Ugo Monye
Steve Borthwick’s side need to find another gear and a different mindset to end their frustrating run of narrow defeats
All year England have been a team who find themselves in arm wrestles and last weekend was no different. They get themselves into tight matches that are still in the balance in the final few minutes – it has almost become the trademark of this team. They’ve played eight matches against tier-one nations and the aggregate margin has been 27 points. The biggest margin has been against Scotland, when they lost by nine, but the rest have been decided by a score or less.
That tells me that England have adopted a certain mindset this year but, based on the evidence, they are not very good at winning tight matches. The ledger reads won three, lost five so my question is, do England need to find a way to get better at winning tight matches? Or do they find another way to win matches? My opinion is that they should go for the latter.
Continue reading...Jamie George admits Eddie Jones’s style was ‘challenging’ amid its successes
- England mood now ‘much more inclusive’ says captain
- ‘Eddie was someone who never wanted to sit still’
The England captain, Jamie George, has insisted that a toxic environment is not a necessary price to pay for success after admitting Eddie Jones’s regime could be “challenging” and that he understands where Danny Care is coming from after his explosive claims about the Australian’s setup.
George, who was appointed England captain at the start of the year, was a mainstay of Jones’s squad and is adamant that the current set-up is “much more inclusive” but did concede “it hasn’t always been that way” in a nod to Care’s comments in his autobiography that the previous environment was like “a dictatorship”. George did, however, laud Jones’s coaching credentials.
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