Wallabies need Suaalii like a hole in the head

I actually don’t wish Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii all the best in rugby. Nothing personal, more a contempt for the lazy thinking at Rugby Australia.

The Wallabies need another outside back like a hole in the head. Particularly one who was a promising rugby league player, but no more than that.

You’ll have to forgive me for not being able to rattle off all of the games Marika Koroibete has won for the Wallabies. Suliasi Vunivalu either. Hell, let’s throw in Lote Tuqiri, Mat Rogers and Wendell Sailor as well.
All fine rugby league players, a couple of whom weren’t bad at rugby either.

Australia already has enough outside backs, Koroibete among them. He’s tried his heart out on the wing for the Wallabies, but you have no influence on the outcome of Test matches from out there.

Israel Folau was reasonably influential, until his public statements on religion became too unpalatable for his employer.

I will mention Hamish McLennan and Nathan Cleary, but only in passing. Potentially chasing the playmaker’s signature, or that of Andrew Johns many years ago, is laughable and pathetic.

No, RA needs more tight forwards to bolster what they already have and better No.10s. They’re fine everywhere else.

So this notion that some high-priced recruit from another code can ever or will ever cure the Wallabies’ woes just needs to be put to bed.

It’s shameful to see any sport simply give up on its own high-performance pathways and talent identification, in favour of some alleged saviour from elsewhere.

I won’t confine that to RA, either. New Zealand Rugby should be embarrassed that money was ever spent on the services of Benji Marshall and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck.

Just as I always thought, on a semi-related theme, that it was a dark day for the All Blacks they were picking Australian Steve Devine to play halfback. It’s an admission of defeat and desperation, if nothing else.

Which is what all the hopes and aspirations surrounding Suaalii smack of. Especially if we assume RA just has him as a short-term rental, before he returns to rugby league.

I’d love his switch of codes to be a flop. Certainly not for Suaalii’s sake, because I always worry about the mental health of young athletes.

But because the folly of this situation needs to be exposed so that it’s never repeated.

Just so we’re clear, I don’t admire the buying of players from anywhere. Japan, France, whoever, should grow and develop their own, rather than cherry pick them from some Pacific Island.

New Zealand has been a serial offender in that regard also, but at least the majority of those lured to these shores generally finish their secondary schooling here.

The strength of rugby in this country has long been the tangible connection between the grassroots and professional games. That’s weakened over time and we must address it before it’s lost entirely.

There is no greater sense of sporting pride than seeing a player go from your local primary school and club teams and into the elite ranks. So many people contribute to the development of that player, whether it’s coaching, transportation, fundraising or sideline support and that shared endeavour means something to people.

It’s why they buy their scarves and their hats and their television subscriptions, so they can continue to back the man they knew as a boy.

I know Suaalii played some age-group rugby, so the game isn’t entirely foreign to him. Nor was it to Tuivasa-Sheck and we all saw how that turned out.

The point is, Suaalii is rugby league through and through. He is in a position to command the salary that enticed him to switch codes because of the years of development done by his junior rugby league clubs, then the Rabbitohs and Roosters.

So I hope he puts few bums on seats for RA, because they’ve played next to no part in getting him to this point. They’ve simply thrown money – that would be better-spent on their own pathways – at an NRL product.

They might get a brief sugar hit and some more media interest in the Wallabies, but it won’t be enduring because Suaalii doesn’t have the ability to single-handedly revive the team’s fortunes.

He’ll just be flat out trying to find a position he can play and where to stand, let alone work out what he can and can’t do at a breakdown.

Test rugby is so fast that you don’t have time to wonder: what am I meant to do here? If you’re a split-second late, you might as well be half an hour.

If RA is going to buy players from the NRL, then maybe they should take a lesson from them too. The successful clubs are those that grow their own, not those who pay overs to assemble stars from elsewhere.