Rooster swoop is ruffling feathers

RELATIONS between the two rugby codes in faraway Australia are never especially cordial, so the decision of the new Wallaby coach – Eddie something-or-other – to lure the much talked-about Joseph Sua’ali’i away from the Sydney Roosters and into the arms of the Waratahs provoked quite a reaction.

“Go now,” remarked the broadcaster and former New South Wales coach Phil Gould, referring to the fact that the superstar back will stick with 13-a-side game until his current deal expires towards the end of next year. “Don’t let the door hit you on the arse on the way out. Go. Go now. Gone. He’s made his decision. Bye bye. Off you go.” Unlike Phil to sit on the fence…

As for Brandon Smith, the Roosters hooker and therefore a current colleague of the code-switcher, there was a little more nuance. But not much. “Super stoked for him – he’s an amazing talent and rugby really got a gem there,” the New Zealander commented. “But a winger from the Roosters isn’t going to help you beat the All Blacks…Go over, get that easy money and then come back to the real sport.”

Sua’ali’i, of Samoan heritage on his mother’s side, is still in his teens, but he has been the talk of Down Under for ages. Saddled with “the new Israel Folau” tag and bracketed with Sonny Bill Williams and Lote Tuqiri as a cross-coder of limitless potential, he will pocket $1.6m a season from his new paymasters.

If his old paymasters are spitting feathers, hence the barbed comments, they will be expectorating even more when the Wallabies, gearing up for a Lions tour in 2025 and a home World Cup two years later, sign another three or four 13-a-siders in the coming months. Has Phil peaked too soon?