3 minute read
Jamie George admits England feel there's an "element of the unknown" about Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, but they're preparing a hot welcome to rugby for him.
England captain Jamie George admits Wallabies' shooting star Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii is an unknown quantity for them, but he'll be urging his side to make sure Australia's new cross-code recruit "knows what Test rugby is all about."
While the selection of Suaalii was the talk of the Australian camp 30km away, England were left conceding at their Bagshot base they needed to get "clued up" about the 21-year-old ex-NRL superstar quickly before Saturday's clash at Twickenham.
Suaalii will play outside centre with Len Ikitau on his inside, as he prepares for his first game of senior rugby, five years since he last played the code as a schoolboy star.
George was respectful about the youngster's introduction, admitting the fact that Suaalii had been given the green light by coach Joe Schmidt proved to him he was ready for action.
"Joe Schmidt is someone that I've been a massive fan of, I respect hugely in terms of his understanding and knowledge and I know that if he wasn't ready to play, then he wouldn't be playing," George said.
"So that's something that we've got to be very aware of. There's this element of the unknown, but at the same time we've got to make sure we're as clued up as we possibly can be.
"And we also need to make sure that he knows what Test match rugby is all about."
While Australia have introduced this untested centre partnership, explaining how Suaalii and Ikitau had interchanged positions in training, the English midfield pairing of Henry Slade and Ollie Lawrence has also been switched, with the latter shifted to the outside to try to test out the newbie.
England assistant coach Richard Wigglesworth suggested it was a flexible pairing and only a "slight tweak" to the partnership of a pair who've won 94 caps between them.
He said the hosts wanted to get "great strike runner" Lawrence on the ball more. "We're trying to get him on the ball in as much space as possible in transition, we missed a few chances to do that (in the narrow loss to New Zealand) and hopefully we'll get more opportunities and we won't miss them."
Of Suaalii, he added: "It will be really interesting, won't it? I don't think Joe Schmidt, the world-class coach that he is, puts him in unless he's ready.
"He's played at school and has been ready for this move for a while. He's obviously an incredible athlete and talent, which is why he's come over with the reputation and the price tag he's got."
Kevin Sinfield, the former rugby league great now running England's defence, is the man they'll turn to to figure out how best they nullify Suaalii's formidable attacking gifts.
"We'll look at him in his rugby league. Kev (Sinfield) will give us a good insight there and we'll make sure we do our due diligence in the next couple of days," said Wigglesworth.
