Suliasi Vunivalu has hit the ground running with the Wallabies but Dave Rennie says the NRL convert won’t be parachuted into the team and confirmed that his hurried arrival is about fast-tracking his development.
The Wallabies returned to their training base in the Hunter Valley on Wednesday fresh from a few well-earned days off following their stunning 24-22 victory over the All Blacks in Brisbane.
With the Bledisloe Cup series in the rear view mirror – and remaining on New Zealand shores for another year – the Wallabies will get the chance to sit back and watch their next opponents, the Pumas, take on the All Blacks this Saturday in Sydney.
While the Springboks regrettably pulled out of The Rugby Championship for “player welfare” reasons, the Pumas will play four Tests in as many weeks against the All Blacks and Wallabies on alternate weeks.
But on the first full day back at Wallabies camp all eyes were on their prized recruit Vunivalu fresh from winning another title with the Melbourne Storm in the NRL.
Rennie said the tryscoring machine, who scored a staggering 86 tries throughout his five-year stint with the Storm including an intercept try in last month’s final win over the Panthers, got his “sweat on” during their main training session of the day.
The decision to call-up the tryscoring machine raised some eyebrows when news broke of his arrival in the Wallabies camp on Tuesday, but Rennie said it was unlikely he would play and inclusion in the squad was merely a way of bringing him into the set-up and upskilling the 24-year-old.
“We don’t know an enormous amount about him from a character point of view; spoke to (Storm General Manager) Frank Ponissi, who raved about character and on-field ability,” Rennie said.
“But a good chance for us to bring him, get to know him a bit better, a chance for him to get understanding of what we think is important and hopefully when he heads back to Super Rugby he’ll have a bit of an understanding about two or three key areas that he can put a bit of time into that’ll help his transition.
“There’s no thinking about using him against Argentina.”
Nor is Rennie planning on handing out jerseys will-nilly either.
The Pumas might not be the All Blacks but for a side desperate to find some consistency and build on the momentum gained from the important Bledisloe win Rennie said the same principles of earning the right to play held sway.
“No, we’ve always talked about earning the right to play,” Rennie reinforced.
“And even though we’ve used 10 debutants in that series they’ve all earned the right to play.
“We’re not going to give jerseys away.
“But there is good competition for places and if we think someone is ready to go we’ll play them. But it’s not a case of earmarking games for individuals, it’s based on where we’re at.”
As expected, just who wears the No.10 jersey for the Wallabies dominated discussion during Rennie’s press conference.
Ahead of the Bledisloe finale Rennie had said to ask him following the game whether he thought Hodge was a fly-half.
Naturally, the question was asked. Without pinning himself, Rennie said Hodge was one from one as a starter and had done all he could to put pressure on the Wallabies’ selectors.
“The only game he’s started for us has been at 10, and I thought he was excellent,” Rennie said.
“He delivered on all the areas that are the reason we picked him. He gave us a bit of experience, he’s got a big kicking game, we wanted to put some scoreboard pressure on the All Blacks so his ability to kick goals and from a long way out, and then obviously he’s a big man who can carry and defend well in that channel, so I’m sure he’s pretty rapt with his performance and he had a massive impact on the result.”
Just whether Hodge is given another go in the No.10 jersey could come down to the fitness of James O’Connor.
The experienced 30-year-old hasn’t played since injuring his MCL during the Bledisloe II defeat.
Rennie said that he would have to train for the entire week to be considered for selection for the November 21 Test against the Pumas in Newcastle.
