George Gregan has hailed Australian rugby’s five million dollar gamble on Joseph Suaalii as one of its greatest investments – and revealed why he never saw it as a roll of the dice.
Suaalii is bound for Twickenham on Saturday with England shaping their team selection around the threat posed by the cross-code Wallaby superstar.
A year ago, Steve Borthwick’s team were 13-point favourites yet beaten by the brilliance of the league recruit playing his first senior game of union.
Major impact
Suaalii, signed on an AUS$5.35 million deal through to the 2027 World Cup, stepped out at Allianz Stadium with critics questioning the wisdom of Rugby Australia betting what little money it had on a 21-year old new to the code at professional level.
The Penrith-born centre responded by flummoxing England on the ground with offloads and no-look passes – and ruling the air. His leap to deny Maro Itoje the last-play restart led to Max Jorgensen’s decisive try.
“There was a lot of negativity around Suaalii,” recalls Wallaby legend Gregan. “People forget that now because he has proved himself to be one of Australian rugby’s best investments.
“That day at Twickenham he had so much time, didn’t he? He knew he was class. He skipped out on the oval and gave a no-look pass for a try. I was like, ‘Okay, that’s a pretty big statement in your first Test, at Twickenham’.
“There were a lot of other things he did that game, but that one captured my eye. Skips on, no look, boom. Knew the defender was biting. Those guys on the edge in league, they do that for supper.”
Union ranked ninth in a list of the nation’s most popular sports when the deal was struck to bring the Samoa international across from the Sydney Roosters. Australia was also ninth in the code’s world rankings.
The hope was that he would not only improve the team but bring more eyeballs to union. The Wallabies have since played to capacity crowds and ended a 62-year wait to win at Ellis Park by beating world champions South Africa in their spiritual home.
“He has lifted the whole of the sport,” says Gregan, before revealing why he always suspected Suaalii would. “Rugby league players, and I’ve played with them at provincial and Wallaby level, compete and train at a level which makes everyone be better because league is super competitive.
“There’s 13 on the field, a squad of only 17. Everyone wants to start and have a role to play. These boys come across confident and ready for the big occasion.
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“They’ve played State of Origins. They’ve either won 3-0, or they’ve come from one down, they’ve done it all. They’ve played Kangaroos. They’ve come over here and had an undefeated tour.
“They’re ready for the big match, they’re ready to train hard and get better because they want to start. So everyone raises their level of performance.
“They make the environment fun as well,” adds Gregan, who will work for TNT Sports during the Quilter Nations Series. “Suaalii’s genuine, he’s real, he’s authentic. He’s a great guy who talks really matter of fact.
“He understands what’s involved with representing the Wallabies, the players who’ve gone before him, but also the opportunity he has now and what the team can do moving forward.
“When a player with such talent says he wants to earn his jersey, and to get better, the effect tends to be that everyone else raises their level of performance. It feels like that happened here.”
Determined to not again be out-thought, out-jumped and out-played by Suaalii, England called up 6’4″ teen sensation Noah Caluori to play the role of Suaalii in training.
Caluori has a rare ability to not only scale the sort of heights reserved for Suaalii and, before him, Israel Folau, but to hang in the air in a way reminiscent of NBA legend Michael Jordan.
Borthwick then selected a back-line packed with aerial experts in Freddie Steward, Tommy Freeman, Tom Roebuck and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso.
Whether devising a plan to counter the Suaalii of last year is enough to cage the 2025 model remains to be seen.
“His way is to look to improve each game, park it and move on,” warns Gregan. “In league, particularly the NRL, you have to do that. A win is worth only two points, and it’s a long season.
Good mentality
“There are 27 rounds now and then you’ve got finals. That is a very good mentality these [NRL] boys bring into a team.
“Australia are improving, they are trending in the right direction. Everything is not going in a linear, upward trajectory, but they’re not spiralling down now, so it’s good. They’re correcting and going again. They’re building experience.
“You sometimes get caught in the trap, like we are right now, of talking about a World Cup years away. There’s a lot of rugby to be played before then.
“But if they keep improving as they have over the last 12 months, they can be quietly confident that they’re going to be, not just tactically and technically, but physically in good shape for that campaign.”
Watch every match of the Quilter Nations Series live on TNT Sports and discovery+ from 1-29 November.
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