VIDEO: De Allende's 'explosive' comment about Wallaby star
SPOTLIGHT: Springbok centre Damian de Allende has been a keen observer of Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii’s journey from Rugby League into the Wallaby team.
De Allende has recovered from a niggle and will start in his usual No.12 position against the Wallabies in Round Two of the Rugby Championship in Cape Town on Saturday.
He is set to come up against Suaalii, who started in the No.13 jersey in the Wallabies’ 38-22 win over the Boks at Ellis Park last weekend.
Suaalii scored an intercept try in that win, and he can be an offloading threat with his big frame out wide.
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“I think he is very agile and explosive,” said De Allende.
“He obviously gets up in the air very well and very high, and I think we handled that quite well last week.
“I’ve watched him when he was at the Roosters [in Rugby League], and he was enjoyable to watch.
“He does very well to keep the ball alive, especially in contact, and that is what he did in League as well.
“For us, it will just be about making sure that we take his space away, but take it away together and not individually. He does have long arms and he can get the ball out quite easily.
“He has been cool to watch – almost reminds me of watching Israel Folau.
“He just brings that different dynamic to the Australian team.
“It’s just those one or two soft moments when he got the ball away and obviously the intercept was pretty special.”
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Meanwhile, De Allende also explained the collective effort by all the Bok midfielders to prepare each other for matchday.
“We obviously got a chance to watch them [Wallaby midfielders] in the Lions series as well, and then we did that review as centres with some of the loosies as well,” he said
“There is always a responsibility, not just for me, but for Andre [Esterhuizen], Jesse [Kriel] and Canan [Moodie], if he goes to No.13.
“Whenever we play in the position, it’s always a big responsibility to own that position.
“But we also give each other enough confidence in the week to own that responsibility, so when you go out there on Saturday, you feel 100 percent confident and you know what is coming.”
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