After questioning his future in rugby, former league flyer Suliasi Vunivalu says the backing of Eddie Jones helped him hold onto the dream of playing at a Rugby World Cup.
When Suliasi Vunivalu switched from league to rugby in 2019, he set his sights on making the 2023 World Cup. He wasn’t even contracted in rugby for that length of time but, by then, Vunivalu had developed a taste for the buzz of a successful World Cup campaign.
Two years later Vunivalu switched to rugby, and almost another four years on, the big winger was standing on Drummoyne Oval wearing Wallabies kit and a giant smile, on the eve of departure to France for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.“It’s a fantastic feeling, this is what I came here for,” Vunivalu said. “One of my main goals was to try and make the World Cup squad, so to get a call that I’d made it, and then see my name on the list, was very special. I am very excited and very grateful.
Like Jones, former coach Dave Rennie named Vunivalu in several squads but wasn’t prepared to pick him until he saw the winger consistently training at full pace, and showing there were no demons still lingering from two hamstring surgeries. He left Vunivalu out of his spring tour squad in 2022 and his first squad in 2023, raising questions about the future of the cross-code star in rugby.
“I think he was doing that to everyone, I am not sure. But it was not just the good stuff. He would message and say ‘this is what you should be doing’ and he would send clips from other wingers, when they did something [good]. It makes you want to push yourself, when he sees something in you.”
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