England are set to be the first opponent for the Wallabies newest acquisition, with rugby league convert Joseph Suaalii ready for his first professional game of rugby union this Saturday. Suaalii has been named to start in the outside centre shirt for Joe Schmidt’s side, and the England coaching staff have been busy doing their homework on the dual code footballer.
England defence coach Joe El-Abd expressed how he has been utilising the insight of their resident rugby league expert, with Kevin Sinfield leading the research into Suaalii’s skillset. The former Leeds Rhino has been crucial to preparing for the former rugby league star, with his insider knowledge hoping to nullify Suaalii’s element of the unknown.
“We do our homework on someone that we’ve obviously followed in the rugby league circles.” El-Abd said in this morning’s England press conference. “So we’ve looked at the footage. We know that he is a physical player. But again, going back to the the idea of concentrating on ourselves, on what we can impose on them.”
“Ultimately, the players we’ve got will adapt on Saturday afternoon. There’s no tape of him in rugby union. There’s tape of an athlete that we’re going to have to contain. We’re going to have to adapt to see where he defends and what that looks like on the day.”
“Yeah, we’ve got an insider (Kevin Sinfield), obviously, in the rugby league circle, so that helps.”
Code switching in rugby is a rarity, but there have been some high profile examples throughout history that England fans can remember to varying extents of success against Australia. Sam Burgess is better remembered for his rugby league career than the 2015 Rugby World Cup disappointment, as he came off the bench against the Wallabies as England crashed out of the tournament’s pool stages.
However, legendary England wing Jason Robinson started off his career with a nine year run with Wigan Warriors in rugby league, before making the change to union. The flyer nicknamed ‘Billy Whizz’ is of course remembered for his try in the 2003 Rugby World Cup Final, as England triumphed over Australia to take home the Web Ellis trophy from Sydney. El-Abd called upon the speedster’s success, as an example of a successful code-switch.
“It’s been done before here in England. Some very good examples with Jason Robinson in the past. So it’s how quickly they can adapt and and as we’ve seen that they can be a great success. So it’s all be interesting to see how it goes.”
The former Sydney Rooster has agreed a move to the New South Wales Waratahs ahead of the 2025 Super Rugby season, and will be giving his new side an early look as he get’s set to star in Australian gold. England attack coach Richard Wigglesworth also weighed in on the Aussie centre, and backs the Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt to only unleash the Australian U18s star when he is fully ready.
“It’ll be really interesting won’t it? I don’t think Joe Schmidt, the world-class coach that he is, puts him in unless he’s ready. He’s obviously played at school and has been ready for this move for a while.
“He’s obviously an incredible athlete and talent, which is why he’s come over with the reputation and the price tag he’s got. We’ll look at him in his rugby league. Kev [Sinfield] will give us a good insight there and we’ll make sure we do our due diligence in the next couple of days.
