Joseph Suaalii's last outing for the NSW Waratahs has reopened a debate that the Between Two Posts crew at Rugby.com.au have not stopped pushing all season: the country's highest-paid rugby player should be playing at 15, not 13.
The trigger was a stat line that hardly registers on a Suaalii game day. "The numbers just didn't stack up in the end for Joseph Suaalii," co-host Sean Maloney said on the latest Between Two Posts. "I think he carried three times for three metres."
That included a single carry inside the second half. The other touches were early kickoffs and the usual aerial work. "He wins that one off the kickoff acrobatically in the air, and then… we're just going to get him early carries to get him into the game," Maloney noted. "And then we didn't see much at all after that… his third carry, and we're like in the second half now."
Maloney's solution is the same one he has been pitching since the start of the year. "It's an easy switch,” he argued, "particularly with Jorgo got four carries, so one more than big Sue, and Sue had played 60 minutes. So I don't think Jorgo should be fullback there either at the moment. So I'd actually just move Joseph to fullback and stick with Max Jorgensen — one of the most dangerous wingers around at the moment, and we've seen that this year on the wing."
His preferred Wallabies back three is now nailed on. "Harvey wherever you put him… your back three is Harvey, Suaalii, and Jorgensen," Maloney said. "In all seriousness I think you put those three guys at the back. Harvey's got very much a fullback's sort of way of playing the game, and that guy I'd have at 13 — Tristan Reilly. I think he runs great lines back against the grain. I think he can create space for others off the back of what he does. I think it's time to shelve that 13 experiment."
The argument leans on situational analysis as much as Suaalii's own metrics. "It's not just about how many touches he gets. It's the situation of those touches," Maloney said. "A 15 at wing… just going to find some space… he's a get-the-ball-in-his-hands-early guy and let him create depth. I'm not sure he's a hit-the-line, hit-a-hole-hard, and then, you know, he's going to carry over with three guys hanging off him, get us over the gain line and we play off the back. So that's the way I would do it. That's the way I've said it all the way along, and I haven't seen any evidence to change my mind."
Co-host Hooper agreed without ceremony. "We're beating that same drum," he said. "Got to take in context, we're not in there week-to-week. We're not privy to the conversations that are going on. We're just going off what we're seeing… What we've seen from other players who are similar builds and athletic profiles to him would be more suited to a different position."
For Maloney, the case is now self-evident. "The Waratahs, they've got to be somewhat selfish or more than selfish now, and they've got to find a way to free up space," he said. "I don't think you guys can say it any more, can you?… You can say it till you're blue in the face until that happens."
Suaalii's contract has him in NSW Rugby colours through 2027. The Waratahs back-end of the season — with the Highlanders and Brumbies still to come — may decide whether the experiment at outside centre survives long enough to make it to the Wallabies' summer tests.
