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Legendary Liverpool football manager Bill Shankly famously said, “Form is temporary, class is eternal.”
Perhaps Joe Schmidt had that in mind when he selected Joseph Suaalii to make his professional rugby debut in front of a crowd of 82,000 at Twickenham.
What we have seen is the best performance by a center outside Australia in at least the last five years, maybe 10 years.
Cue the accusations of ‘hype’ that will predictably come from the same crowd that thought Suaalii was an expensive ‘league player’. Poor investment.
But I still support it.
Suaali’s advantage was that he did not drift, but instead retreated in time for the opponent’s defense, straightening the line and creating overlaps at will.
In Australia, not since Little, Herbert and Mortlock has there been an external center that creates space for those around it.
(Photo: Andrew Kearns – CameraSport via Getty Images)
That’s no disrespect to the players who came before him, like the great Len Ikitau or Rob Horne.
But by 50 minutes, young Joseph had six 26-metre carriages and four unloaders. And he kept at it.
The BBC’s Paul Grayson said: “Suaalii doesn’t look like a nervous debutant! He had a noble touch.”
Shortly after, his colleague Matt Dawson waxed lyrical: “Another outstanding piece of work from this rugby league convert. Paul Grayson talked about how worried people are about his defense. Don’t worry about his defense, just watch his offense.”
In fact it was Tom Wright, not the former Rooster, who was caught twice in defense to help England find their feet again. However, most players seemed to grow around the age of 21, especially in attack.
Great players, quality athletes, have that effect. They make people around them better.
They won a Test at Twickenham that we had no right to dream of winning. We face a team that has beaten us 10 of our last 11 games.
It is no coincidence that the passage and unloading of the wallaby went smoothly. The offense looked a little similar to one that included guys like Little and Herbert.
Admitting that Hamish McLennan may have been right will be painful for many and may even be shocking to some.
Despite all the naysayers and people almost wishing him to fail, Joseph Suaalii is better than good and will get better.
A wallaby, almost a man, stood up and counted.
But besides Suaalii, there was another one that was particularly worthy of the superlatives: our world-class prop Angus Bell.
Bell’s tiring around the 60-minute mark, when the props were tiring, certainly coincided with England’s resurgence.
When Shankly said years ago that the class was permanent, he was probably thinking more about athletes like outside centers. But the same applies to someone as big and big-hearted on the comeback trail as Angus.
