Former England winger Chris Ashton has questioned why Rugby Australia “keep signing rugby league players”, saying the Wallabies’ highest-paid star Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii is not a Test-standard rugby player and wouldn’t get a start in the English side.
Ashton teed off on Suaalii and the Wallabies after their dismal 45-22 defeat against England at Twickenham on Monday morning (AEDT), and he wasn’t alone, with numerous other ex-England players and pundits also piling into the “toothless” and “woeful” Wallabies.
Ashton, who played rugby league for Wigan and England before switching to union and representing England 44 times, was scathing of the Wallabies’ listless effort at Twickenham. Speaking on the BBC Rugby Union Weekly podcast, Ashton said the Wallabies were hugely disappointing.
“I think the biggest tell in games of this level is how much energy and effort that players are putting in, and Australia were operating at about 20 per cent,” Ashton said. “It was almost a carbon copy of last season (a 25-7 England win). I just can’t get my head around it. We keep trying to find positives for Australia, and that they’re moving in the right direction, but I ain’t seeing it.
“And they keep signing rugby league players. This Suaalii gamble, [I] dread to think how much he gets paid, he doesn’t look like a … international rugby union player to me.”
Ashton said Suaalii’s best game as a rugby player was his Test debut at Twickenham in 2024, but since then, he hasn’t been impressed.
“If he was English, he wouldn’t be playing for England. He just won’t be there,” Ashton said. “But yet he’s here, he’s running around every week for Australia.
“And they’ve got two or three more coming, rugby league lads that they want to get for the World Cup. I’ve no idea where Australia are heading, and what direction they’re going in. And they’ve got a World Cup coming up in less than a year.”
Suaalii was shifted to the wing for Monday morning’s clash and had success in aerial contests, but didn’t see much ball in attack, with only eight carries. Ashton said it took him three years to acclimatise to rugby, and said during BBC commentary for the match it looked like Suaalii didn’t know what he was doing in rugby.
“When I’m watching him, I’m watching him ruck, he looks like me when I didn’t know, and I didn’t have a clue what was going on,” Ashton said post-game. “He doesn’t know how to ruck, he doesn’t know where to hit the ruck. They (Australia) are in all sorts, and they’re trying to force him into this team, and they’ve signed more rugby league lads.”
Rugby Australia has signed two NRL players – Zac Lomax and Angus Crichton – in the last year. When it was raised on the BBC podcast that Australia and England would likely play each other in the rugby World Cup quarter-finals next year, Ashton said: “We’re into a semi if that’s the case.”
Writing in the Daily Mail, former England halfback Ben Youngs was a little kinder to Suaalii but said the fact backrower Henry Pollock was allowed to play wing without being tested showed how badly the Wallabies played.
“He [Pollock] was laughing after the game about how easy it was and that’s a damning indictment of Australia. If England were playing against New Zealand, France or South Africa, they would ruthlessly try to target him off strike moves and contestable kicks,” Youngs wrote.
“Australia did none of that. They gave him an armchair ride. That’s rugby IQ 101. Where’s your nous? Where’s your match understanding? They could have Mark Nawaqanitawase and Joseph Suaalii as all-star wingers at the World Cup but if that was their standard of half-backs, then they are going nowhere.
“For all of England’s brilliance, I still can’t get over how poor Australia were. They were toothless.”
Writing in The Guardian, rugby correspondent Gerard Meagher said of the “woeful” Wallabies: “There was none of the counterattacking swagger that they are capable of and little of the ball‑carrying thrust that some of their heavyweights can produce – at least not until the game was well and truly up.”
Surprisingly, however, England hooker Jamie George leapt to the Wallabies defence, saying their performance was nullified by a strong England showing, and that Australia can still have a decent tour.
“I thought they played well today. I genuinely thought that they were pretty good across the whole,” George said.
“You know, there was a lot of tough contests out there. I think we’ve got to give ourselves a little bit of credit here. A lot of teams when you win convincingly, you talk about the opposition maybe not showing up.
“I think maybe the key here is to focus on how we were able to not let them play their game because they’re a very, very good team, and I think they’ll show that throughout this autumn.”
News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Friday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
Iain Payten is a senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.
