There was one question Hamish McLennan had to consider before opening up the chequebook and luring back Joseph Suaalii: was Israel Folau a success in rugby?
Up until his ugly exit from Rugby Australia, the answer was an overwhelming yes.
Was he the saviour of the game? Absolutely not. But what Folau did was bring star power back to the game. He became the face of Australian rugby.
The moment he rejected the Parramatta Eels and sat next to Michael Cheika in Sydney in December, 2012, the game changed. A pulse returned to Australian rugby.
And while the Wallabies didn’t always win, he was regularly one of the few in Australia’s team that was in the reckoning for a World XV. Not bad for a bloke who had no background in the game.
When the Wallabies were smashed at Eden Park, it was Folau who often scored. Ditto at Twickenham, where he scored a double in his final match in gold.
In half a career, he became Super Rugby’s greatest try scorer, and the best in the world under the high ball.
Nor was Folau a magician on the field. Indeed, he was an imperfect fullback. Flawed in many ways; Folau couldn’t kick and struggled to pass.
By contrast, Suaalii was on the radar of every oval-shaped ball watcher when he was in year 10.
As a 15-year-old, he wowed the Australian Sevens team and Sydney Swans great Nick Davis.
Of course, every step of his burgeoning career has been traced since and his move from the Rabbitohs pathway to archrivals the Roosters has been well publicised.
But, importantly, Suaalii has a background in rugby.
He might not have run out in a State of Origin game yet – something Folau had achieved at the same age – but it’s a matter of when not if.
In his first full season as an NRL player, Suaalii was included in the NSW Blues’ wider squad and was on standby if anyone went down.
Greg Alexander, one of the smartest brains in rugby league and a former Origin great, said it wasn’t his two tries against the Parramatta Eels last year that convinced him he was ready but his toughness.
“He is a special talent and it’s not the fantastic things that made Freddy (NSW coach Brad Fittler) and I and the rest of the coaching staff think he was ready for Origin footy, it’s how tough he is,” Alexander said.
“I watched the Magic Round game where the Roosters took on the Eels… the Roosters received the ball from the kick-off with Jared Waerea-Hargreaves taking the hit-up.
“Joseph Suaalii took play two into the teeth of the Parramatta pack.
“He crashed into Junior (Paulo) and Reagan (Campbell-Gillard) and still got the ball away.
“So he’s a tough young boy and very talented.”
He’s not just tough, he’s brilliant in the air.
Just ask Nick Malouf, the current Australian Sevens captain who came off second best during a kick restart when Suaalii was a 15-year-old.
“He sat me down, won it and I got up thinking, ‘what the hell just happened there.’ He’s incredible,” Malouf told The Roar.
Joseph Suaalii in full flight for Samoa at the rugby league World Cup. (Photo by Tim Goode/PA Images via Getty Images)
Folau started on the wing for the Waratahs when Cheika lured him over.
Six months later he wowed the world by scoring a first-half double against the British and Irish Lions and along the way left Johnny Sexton – the 2018 World Rugby player of the year – clutching at thin air.
Phil Kearns declared: “Have you ever seen a better debut? Ever!”
During a generation of disappointment, Folau was one of the few players respected worldwide and was a household name in Australia in much the same way Brian O’Driscoll carried Ireland.
Suaalii can have the same devastating impact as Folau.
He is three centimetres taller than Folau at 196cm and, with years still to grow into his body, is almost 100kg.
But unlike O’Driscoll, Suaalii can bring some much-needed class to a rising Australian squad.
No international team can win without a strong forward pack, but after the recent retention of Angus Bell, Taniela Tupou and Allan Alaalatoa, Suaalii can offer the Wallabies a point of difference.
It is why McLennan and Eddie Jones went all in on the teenage prodigy.
Even better, with a Waratahs backline featuring Suaalii, Max Jorgensen and Mark Nawaqanitawase, Super Rugby will once again become a product Australia’s biggest state can get behind.
After all, Australian sport is in the show business.
Rugby Australia just landed its biggest cast member.
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