While Joseph Suaalii enjoyed a man-of-the-match debut for the Wallabies in last week’s win over England, Australia didn’t need the 21-year-old to cruise to a 52-20 win against Wales on Monday morning.
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Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt made the surprising call to send Suaalii back to the bench earlier in the week, with Samu Kerevi returning to the starting line-up.
Suaalii came on as Kerevi’s replacement in the 63rd minute of Monday’s game with the Wallabies up 50-22, so he didn’t have to do very much — although he was close to finding himself in trouble after he nearly went too high with the contact on his first tackle on Jac Morgan.
Stan Sport commentator Sean Maloney described it as a “jamming blow” from Suaalii while former Wallabies player Justin Harrison warned Suaalii had to “make sure that he wraps” in the future.
Wallabies confirm Sua’ali’i dropped | 01:16
It came after Kerevi found himself in hot water after being red carded for a high tackle, which puts in question his position in the run-in team for next week’s game against Scotland.
Schmidt said in his post-game press conference that the Wallabies coaching staff was “pretty disappointed” by the red card.
Should Kerevi be banned, it will see Suaalii return to the starting team for the Scotland game.
Otherwise, there wasn’t too much to make of Suaalii’s second performance for the Wallabies given it came in a blowout win.
Speaking earlier in the week, Schmidt explained why he had sent Suaalii back to the bench.
“It was a whirlwind for Joseph last week, or the last two weeks, so for him to just be able to take a breath and watch a bit of the game and then enter the game, I think he’s a great opportunity to change it up a bit for us if required,” Schmidt said.
“Anyone who plays four consecutive Tests against the sort of ranked countries that we’re up against, I do think that’s a big challenge for anyone, and particularly playing the full 80 minutes.
“There was only kind of half the plan last week, but then when ‘Pietschy’ (Dylan Pietsch) came off, we couldn’t quite manage those minutes, and so we want to try to keep some balance there.
“And Samu (Kerevi) comes in for his 50th cap, so he’s a really experienced, combative player.”
