‘Unfair’: Wallabies teammate jumps to Suaalii’s defence after Ashton bake

Edinburgh: Wallabies halfback Ryan Lonergan has leapt to the defence of under-fire teammate Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and said, after much soul-searching in the wake of a humbling loss to England, the Australian squad will bounce back forcefully against Scotland at Murrayfield.

Suaalii was the target of a strong critique from former England winger Chris Ashton following the Wallabies’ 45-22 defeat at Twickenham, with the dual international saying the $1.6 million Wallaby back did not look like an international rugby player and wouldn’t get a start for the English side.

Speaking after the Wallabies settled into Edinburgh ahead of Monday morning’s (AEDT) clash, Lonergan went into bat for Suaalii, saying the Ashton spray was “unfair” and a lack of involvement for any back three player is mostly the fault of the team, not the individual.

“He’s a great teammate, a great athlete, and I think he played pretty well on the weekend with the opportunities that we gave him as a team, which weren’t many,” Lonergans said.

“I thought he was good in the air and he put himself in a position around the park to be able to attack when we could.

“But I think, as a team, we just didn’t give the strike power that we have [enough] opportunity through our inaccuracies throughout launch, and then just our speed of movement was down.

“So when you look at the back three we got, the strike power we got, when they’re not getting opportunities, I don’t think it’s through a fault of their own. It’s probably more the symptom of what’s going on on the inside. I think that (Ashton’s spray) is probably a little bit unfair on ‘Su’.”

Suaalii wasn’t alone in getting criticised; the Wallabies were widely panned by the world’s media and most rugby fans for their sub-standard effort at Twickenham.

Lonergan said he had not digested much of the scathing feedback, given he tries not to read commentary to help stay off the emotional rollercoaster.

“I found it helps me quite a lot, and it takes you out of the highs when you’re playing well and it takes you out of the lows when you’re not going so well. So I steer away from it,” Lonergan said.

The Brumbies halfback indicated the Wallabies didn’t need their flaws to be pointed out, in any case, saying the team had had “a good honest look at what we need to work on” during a review session on Tuesday.

“There’s quite a lot … of looking within going on at the moment,” Lonergan said. “And I’m sure there’s going to be a great turnaround throughout the week, and then on the weekend. It’s disappointing. Everyone is super disappointed with how we showed up on the weekend. I’m sure there’ll be a good bounce back from the boys.”

Wallabies scrum coach John Ulugia said the players accept they will come under fire when they perform poorly. But while conceding there needed to be strong response at Murrayfield, Ulugia said they would find motivation from within, not from the external pressure.

“There’s always criticism around performance, especially when you don’t win. And the players are aware of the noise that comes with the job that they do,” Ulugia said.

“In terms of the mental space, as Lonners has already touched on, it’s really important that these guys bounce [back] and play well the week after. And within the group, we’ve got that in us. We train hard, we train to game intensity, so that when we do play, we’re in a better spot.

“Obviously last week was a different story, but as a coach now, we never feed back anything that comes from outside in. We focus on what’s inside our circle and we just beat the drum until we can play well or get a result.”

Though Isaac Henry departed the squad with a hamstring strain, Ulugia confirmed the rest of the Wallabies were all fit, meaning Carter Gordon, Tom Hooper and Brandon Paenga-Amosa – who missed the England game with knee bruising – should all be available.

The big focus of the Wallabies’ review, Lonergan said, was remedying the core problem in the Twickenham defeat: losing the physical collisions in both attack and defence.

“It’s probably the main point that came out of our defensive review this morning,” he said.

“And again, it can come back to the speed in which you move. We probably got caught behind the eight-ball there. And then they can sort of just play on top of us, and it’s just a bit of a snowball effect.

“And they get a bit of gain line, and then ruck speed, and then it’s quite hard to stop a good attack from there.”

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Friday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.