Beale ‘in the mix’ but misses selection as Wallabies regular benched for England clash
London: Kurtley Beale’s shock return to the Wallabies starting side will have to wait after the 37-year-old missed out on the 23-man squad for the Nations Championship match against England at Twickenham on Monday morning (AEDT).
Coach Les Kiss has also opted to stick with Declan Meredith at five-eighth after he started there against the All Blacks in the final Bledisloe Test.
Kurtley Beale in London. Rugby Australia
Rob Valetini is the surprise decision from the squad with Kiss putting him on the bench with lock Jeremy Williams moving to the blindside flanker position.
Speaking from the Wallabies’ base at The Lensbury, Kiss explained the decision was around Williams’ versatility and the potential to change things later in the match.
“There’s a couple of lines of thinking from the squad ... I wanted to bring Miles (Amatosero) along as well and look for how we look at two big locks in the make-up of our squad and see how they go. These last four games are the last opportunity I’ve got to explore some of those things in a proper way which Jez opened up ... he plays a lot at six for the Force,” he said.
“We know that his line-out now is good enough. We know he’s got a good engine. We know that he’ll finish off the game for us.
“He can move up to lock later in the game and basically try and move Bobby into a situation where his power and strength can come into play later in the game.”
Williams said he was “comfortable” with the switch while admitting it was a slight surprise.
“But obviously, I’m really grateful to be in the team and really pumped to get out there and put on a good performance this weekend,” he said.
“I’d play anywhere if I could. I think probably a lot of players would say that, all the players really.”
As for Beale, Kiss confirmed he was “in the selection mix” and isn’t in the squad to be a passenger but the coach wanted to stick with his current centre pairing. He was also impressed with Meredith’s performance against the All Blacks but that decision may have also been aided by the fact Carter Gordon wasn’t ready due to injury despite being “so close it wasn’t funny”.
Beale will warm up with the squad as an emergency player for the reserves.
Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii is the other interesting selection as he continues to swap between centre and wing under Kiss.
Kiss has decided to pick him on the wing in a sure sign the Wallabies will be looking to utilise his aerial ability.
Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii. Getty Images
The coach wasn’t going to deliver a concrete answer whether that’s his best position.
“It is a good question because in the coaching meetings we discuss this a lot and trying to make sure we get the right balance of what we’re trying to achieve in each game,” he said.
“He is serving something from the wing for us at the moment in terms of the aerial and also his ability to hunt across the park and sniff up opportunities. But the fact that he’s played so much 13 is important for us.
“It gives us that flexion if we need to. We also have Filipo (Daugunu) on the bench that can play 13 or wing. We want to make sure we can stay strong in those edge channels and the fact that that can happen and that flexibility for us is important because some part of me always goes forward, but also right here, right now, what do we need to do? I think it suits Joseph to be on the wing for this game.
“With himself and Max (Jorgensen) and Tom Wright, that back three has been reasonably consistent for us and we just want to keep working on that for this game in particular. And the aerial skills, we know it will be massively important this weekend.”
As for whether we could see Suaalii move positions throughout the tour, Kiss confirmed it’s possible.
“It was a really tight decision between (Harry) Potter and Filipo, because Potter is very good in the air as well and has a great engine, but Filipo’s impact from the bench against the All Blacks was compelling in a number of ways and he’s great on the floor as well, he’s massively physical.
“But, yeah, the flexibility’s there. I’ll probably err on the side that we’ll probably try and maintain, but we know we can move to that at any given time if we need to.”
The Wallabies also had two special guests at training on Friday with incoming Waratahs star Angus Crichton and Brisbane Lions premiership winner Will Ashcroft showing their faces.
Kiss pointed out that Crichton was here on holiday and joined the group for lunch as he continues recovering from a foot injury.
Wallabies team
1. Angus Bell 2. Billy Pollard 3. Allan Alaalatoa 4. Josh Canham 5. Lukhan Salakaia-Loto 6. Jeremy Williams 7. Fraser McReight 8. Harry Wilson (c) 9. Ryan Longergan 10. Declan Meredith 11. Joseph Suaalii 12. Len Ikitau 13. Isaac Henry 14. Max Jorgensen 15. Tom Wright 16. Josh Nasser 17. Isaac Kailea 18. Taniela Tupou 19. Rob Valetini 20. Carlo Tizzano 21. Tate McDermott 22. Ben Donaldson 23. Filipo Daugunu
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