Back to Iz happy place

ENDING the midfield experiment and returning to his happy place at fullback was the key to putting a smile back on Israel Folau’s dial, according to former Wallabies flyer Lote Tuqiri.

But there is just one problem for Tuqiri. The big grins come from Folau after he scores tries and such is the prolific strike rate of the Wallabies fullback this year, Folau is slowly but surely removing Tuqiri’s name from the record books.

“He has broken most of my records now,” Tuqiri joked.

“Which is no huge shock, let’s be honest.”

With another double against Argentina in Canberra two weekends ago, Folau drew level with Tuqiri on two fronts. They share the most Wallaby tries in a calendar year (10), and equal fifth spot on the most career tries (30) list for the Wallabies.

But, just as Folau passed Tuqiri for the most career Waratahs tries last year, it’s only a matter of time before he kicks ahead and possibly even takes a shot at breaking the world record most Test tries in a calendar year. The record is 17 tries, currently shared by Japan’s Daisuke Ohata and Kiwi wing Joe Rokocko.

Folau has bagged 10 tries in seven games already this year and the Wallabies still have another eight Test matches to play in 2017.

“He is so good around the group – he is Mr Reliable, you know?” says Wallabies teammate Nick Phipps.

“You just know Iz is going to deliver. He gets off on playing in front of big crowds and scoring tries, he loves it.”

Folau is in the middle of his most productive year as a tryscorer in rugby yet.

Adding the 10 Test tries to his nine Super Rugby tries, Folau’s already equal to his combined tally of 19 in 2014.

It’s a far cry from the struggles of recent years, however.

In the context of his career, Folau went through extreme drought in recent years; scoring only six tries in 2015 and 13 last year.

A positional shift to No.13 at NSW saw his space constricted and he struggled to make the same dynamic impact. After Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson shifted him back to fullback in March, the return to form came quickly – at Super and Test levels.

Tuqiri said while the centre experiment wasn’t a “huge failure”, it was always a matter of playing Folau in the position where he’d make most impact.