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Australia will 'shut the Pommies up' says debutant Suliasi Vunivalu
By PA
Suliasi Vunivalu insists Australia are determined to “shut the Pommies up” when they clash with England in Saturday’s series decider at Sydney Cricket Ground.
Rugby league convert Vunivalu will make his long-awaited Wallabies debut off the bench having finally overcome the hamstring injuries that have repeatedly struck since switching codes last year.
Inspired by seeing Queensland edge New South Wales in a dramatic State of Origin decider on Wednesday, Vunivalu wants to silence Eddie Jones’ tourists by making the strong start Australia have been unable to produce in the first two Tests.
“Watching that Origin game made me look forward to our big game with that intensity right from the start,” the Fijian-born wing said.
“We have been lacking that with the Wallabies for our first 20 minutes, so if we can bring that up and shut the Pommies up we’ll do a good job.”
Head coach Dave Rennie has made four changes to the team that fell to a 25-17 defeat in the second Test with prop James Slipper, lock Nick Frost, flanker Harry Wilson and full-back Reece Hodge starting.
Hodge is the fourth different player to feature at 15 for Australia due to a sickening run of injuries and Rennie joked that if their bad luck continues in Sydney, Vunivalu could be on the field for longer than planned.
“Just thinking about the last couple of weeks, he’ll probably be on after about three minutes. Suli’s time on the field will definitely be game-dependent,” Rennie said.
“He is covering a fair number of spots if you consider that Reece Hodge could move. We certainly want to give him reasonable time, but we’ll do what’s best for the team on the day.”
Australia trailed 17-0 in the first half at Suncorp Stadium but fought back only for a high error count to undermine their effort to seize an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.
“This game is massive. We’re well aware of that. We were disappointed last week and we’re better than that. There’s no doubting the character of this group and we will fight,” Rennie said.
“We gave England such a big start in the last game and they’re too good a side to be given that sort of advantage. We have to be better and we will be.”
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Latest Comments
No because if it was a 1:1 correspondence it would have been 10 top14, 3 URC and 3 Prem. I did arbitrarily put a max limit per league at 8 because for me if half of the teams are from the top14 it will make no sense. I genuinely didn't think the discussion will go that way tbh as for me it is a details.
Go to commentsFoster should never have been appointed, and I never liked him as a coach, but the hysteria over his coaching and Sam Cane as a player was grounded in prejudice rather than fact.
The New Zealand Rugby public were blinded by their dislike of Foster to the point of idiocy.
Anything the All Blacks did that was good was attributed to Ryan and Schmidt and Fozzie had nothing to do with it.
Any losses were solely blamed on Foster and Cane.
Foster did develop new talent and kept all the main trophies except the World Cup.
His successor kept the core of his team as well as picking Cane despite him leaving for overseas because he saw the irreplaceable value in him.
Razor will take the ABs to the next level, I have full confidence in that.
He should have been appointed in 2020.
But he wasn’t. And the guy who was has never been treated fairly.
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