Wallabies teammate drops startling confession after being shifted for Joseph Suaalii's debut
The Wallabies recruit has been the talk of the rugby union world after his performance against England.
Angus Bell and Len Ikitau have both hailed rugby league convert Joseph Suaalii as a hard-working talent after his 'freak' debut for the Wallabies only weeks after re-joining rugby union. The Wallabies left England stunned at Twickenham on the weekend having sealed a 42-37 win to keep their chances of completing a grand slam tour alive.
Max Jorgensen scored in the 85th minute, after regular time had finished, to secure Australia's famous victory, but it was the likes of Bell and Rob Valetini's tireless efforts as forwards that helped the Wallabies find the grit they have been lacking for so many years.
And amid the epic displays, Suaalii also shone having been controversially selected to make his debut at outside centre. While there was plenty of criticism surrounding his selection, having only just joined the Wallabies squad, Suaalii was stellar having won multiple contests in the air to hand Australia possession.
He also provided a lovely try assist with a one-handed pass. Coach Joe Schmidt was in no doubt the 21-year-old was ready to make his debut and Ikitau was also impressed with what he saw at training leading up to the England clash.
"He's a freak, man!" Ikitau said. "Just being able to play next to him and just seeing what he can do on the field is awesome. And we're expecting more from him, especially now that he's had his first game."
And he wasn't the only one. Speaking on Tuesday morning, Bell - who could have been player-of-the-match for the Wallabies after a barnstorming effort - admitted he was rooming with Suaalii during the tour. And the prop was stunned at Suaalii's humility and ability so far since joining the camp after leaving his NRL club the Roosters.
"He is my roomie. Freak of an athlete," Bell said on SEN Radio. "And extremely humble too...very humble and probably the hardest working 21 year-old I met. It is why he has played Origin and professional rugby at 17."
Wallabies teammate accommodates Joseph Suaalii role
Ikitau had never played inside centre for the Wallabies, but was asked by Schmidt to make the move to accomodate Suaalii's presence in the team. And Ikitau admitted he didn't have an issue with the move and just wanted to help out the team.
"You know, I've been playing 13 all my career. I just didn't want to change anything," he said. "I just said to myself, 'I'm going to play as a centre'. "I just wanted to make sure that I was tackling well and attacking the ball well and, in the end, didn't really change too much in terms of the way I wanted to play."
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The Wallabies' victory in England was a huge change of fortunes after finishing bottom of the Rugby Championship standings. While Wallabies fans were thrilled to have finally got a famous victory, after so many lows in recent years, coach Schmidt claimed the team need to follow up their win with another strong performance and use the confidence against Wales this weekend.
"Inevitably, progress is never linear, so there'll be a few peaks and troughs on the way further forward, but I've found a really good bunch of people, both in the staff and in the playing group," he said. "The players can grow confidence in themselves.
"And I thought some of the skill exhibited, some of the things we've been working really hard on, were certainly visible, which gives us a bit of confidence, certainly gives the players a bit of confidence. I think there's green shoots."
