{"id":635124,"date":"2026-04-28T00:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T00:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/635124\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T00:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T00:29:11","slug":"wallabies-star-joseph-aukuso-suaalii-to-return-against-zac-lomaxs-western-force-dan-botha-cited-following-crusaders-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/635124\/","title":{"rendered":"Wallabies star Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii to return against Zac Lomax’s Western Force, Dan Botha cited following Crusaders loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a potentially savage blow to their hopes of making a late season surge to the finals, rising Waratahs<\/a> prop Daniel Botha has been cited ahead of Friday night’s must-win clash against the Western Force.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old was officially cited on Monday morning for making “dangerous contact” with Crusaders lock Antonio Shalfoon in the second half during the Waratahs’ 35-20 loss on Friday night.<\/a><\/p>\n

The incident took place in the 61st minute, with Botha coming in late at a ruck to try and clear the second-rower off the ball.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Awful trouble’ facing Maroons if they pick Munster<\/a><\/p>\n

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Shalfoon can be seen bouncing back after the contact and briefly clutching his head.<\/p>\n

His hearing will take place on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

\"SYDNEY,<\/p>\n

Waratahs prop Daniel Botha.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Waratahs coach Dan McKellar will be desperate to ensure Botha escapes punishment after the 24-year-old’s coming of age.<\/p>\n

After playing second fiddle to Taniela Tupou last year, Botha’s been McKellar’s first choice tight-head prop for the majority of the season.<\/p>\n

While Sifa Amone started ahead of Botha last week, the change up was as much to do with rotation and finishing the game strongly alongside usual loose-head prop Tom Lambert.<\/p>\n

Amone also struggled in his first start in the No.3 jersey, with the Crusaders’ All Blacks-laden front-row putting the Waratahs’ scrum on roller-skates.<\/p>\n

A potential ban wouldn’t just rob the Waratahs of their best scrummaging prop, but it would also likely hurt the team’s ability to generate clean, fast ball from set-piece strike plays.<\/p>\n

That could prove costly, especially with McKellar set to welcome Wallabies star Joseph Aukuso-Suaalii back into the starting side after a two-month absence because of a hamstring injury for Friday night’s match against the Force.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season with every match streaming live and on demand on the home of rugby, Stan Sport<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Joseph-Aukuso<\/p>\n

Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii is set to return against the Western Force on Friday.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

His expected return comes not a second late with the Waratahs slipping to eighth spot on the Super Rugby standings on 19 points following the 15-point loss to the Crusaders, four points behind the sixth-place Queensland Reds.<\/p>\n

McKellar said Suaalii would given the Waratahs a massive boost on the field, having not played since pulling up lame in the warm-up ahead of their third game against the Hurricanes in early March.<\/p>\n

“Presence, leadership, his defence,” McKellar said of what former NRL star Suaalii would bring.<\/p>\n

“And to get him the ball in space … a big, abrasive point of difference.<\/p>\n

“He’s a player we’ve missed. In the 23 games (we’ve played), he’s played eight since he’s been here.<\/p>\n

“I hope we can turn that around to help us achieve what we want to achieve.”<\/p>\n

His probable return will be a promoter’s dream too, with Suaalii to square up against his former NSW Blues teammate, Zac Lomax<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lomax, who debuted earlier this month against the Drua, enjoyed a win on his starting debut against the Crusaders in just his second match.<\/p>\n

The winger scored a try and set up another during the come-from-behind win.<\/p>\n

He was also the target of several attacking kicks from the Force, with Simon Cron’s men likely to target the Waratahs’ small backline in Sydney.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a potentially savage blow to their hopes of making a late season surge to the finals, rising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-635124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}