Australia beat Japan 35-32 at Hanazono Rugby Stadium on Saturday, played 60 minutes a man down after a red card, and still had to survive a Warner Dearns try in the closing stages. The two sides meet again at Townsville's Queensland Country Bank Stadium on 15 August. Between now and then, the argument is about where two Wallabies play.
Tim Horan, the two-time World Cup-winning centre, wants two changes. The first is at fly-half, where Declan Meredith has started the last three Tests.
"Declan Meredith at 10 struggled. It was his third Test match in a row. He's a good Super Rugby player but we need to find [out] who's going to be out number 10? Who's going to be that fly-half for the next two or three years," Horan said on Wide World of Sports. "That's Carter Gordon. You've got to get Carter Gordon in there as quick as we can."
The second is more contentious. Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii started at outside centre in Osaka alongside Hunter Paisami, who came in for the injured Len Ikitau and finished with 10 carries and a heavy tackle count. Suaalii ran the ball six times for less than 15 metres and has not scored a Test try since last September.
"I think the second point, Joseph Suaalii is wasted at number 13. We're just not seeing enough of him," Horan said. "A lot of people have been talking about, put him on the wing where he can use his height, we've seen what he did in the NRL. Get him involved in the game. He's just being wasted at number 13."
Horan was not unsympathetic about the effort. "[Suaalii is] trying. He's trying to get involved in the game. But unfortunately, the game's not coming to him. He's trying to find a way."
Les Kiss has already answered the question, before the series began. Asked in late July where he intended to use Suaalii, the new Wallabies head coach was unambiguous while leaving the door ajar.
"I will be persisting at 13 with him at this stage, but I know that he can go to [full-back] and wing, and that's important to acknowledge as well," Kiss said.
The Osaka Test offered a small piece of evidence for both arguments. Debutant Isaac Henry, a centre by trade, came off the bench in the final 10 minutes - and Suaalii shifted to the wing to accommodate him. Kiss has added Tom Hooper to the squad for Townsville.
Eddie Jones, meanwhile, is more concerned with the 20 minutes his side let slip than with Australia's selection. Japan led early through Ryunosuke Ito, levelled at 14-14 while the Wallabies were down to 14, and scored through Lua Makisi, Kazuma Ueda and Dearns in a second half that produced 39 points between the sides.
"We let ourselves down with a few fundamental errors in the last 20 minutes, where we had an opportunity to probably put Australia away," Jones said post-game on Stan Sport. "Pretty disappointed, mate. But I'm really proud of how hard the players and playing. There's a lot of development in this team."
Japan have now lost eight from eight against Australia, having come within four points in Osaka and within four in a 19-15 defeat last October. Jones described a deliberate change in shape: "We're just trying to play flatter to the line and not be encumbered by shape. We're trying to play a lot more freer off the ruck ball. It really suits our style."
He also expects the rematch to be looser again, for reasons that have nothing to do with either coaching staff. "Townsville, I was just watching the NRL last week, they had 100 points up there. We can anticipate a high-scoring game so we've got a little bit of work to do on our defence."
Jones offered a read on what has changed under Kiss, having watched the Wallabies closely under Joe Schmidt. "They want to play with greater passes. Under Joe, they went to very much half field, half attack. Today they tried to move the ball quicker, which I think Les likes to do, and that's what he did at London Irish."
The win was Australia's second in a row, their first back-to-back since beating the British and Irish Lions and the Springboks a year ago. A third on Saturday would be their first sequence of three since July 2024. Two Tests in Argentina follow.
