“Mate, [Joseph Suaalii] needs to get in the air. Like, it just has to happen. Like, it is killing me.” James Parsons.
James Parsons has watched the Wallabies for two Bledisloe Tests and one thing is eating at him. Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii is not being sent into the air.
“I’m going to sound like a broken record and I need to stop saying it, but mate, [Suaalii] needs to get in the air,” Parsons said on the Aotearoa Rugby Pod on Sunday 18 October.
“Like, it is killing me. It literally is. I think it’s eating me up at night,” he said.
Comments are open: should the Wallabies build their kicking game around Suaalii, yes or no?
James Parsons calls it an attacking platform
Parsons is a former All Blacks hooker and Blues captain. He co-hosts the show with Ross Karl and Bryn Hall, and he sees a contested kick as a weapon.
“I just don’t understand how the hell they’re not utilizing it. Like to me, that is an attacking platform.”
Then the money. “He is a multi-million dollar paid a year player,” Parsons said.
He had a precedent in mind. “Why could they do it with Israel Folau and why can they not do it with this guy?”
Folau went from the wing to fullback and made the high ball his own. The Wallabies kicked to him because he won it.
The number on his back keeps changing
Les Kiss kept him on the wing for Eden Park, so he would be under the All Blacks’ kicks. In Sydney he was back at 13 alongside Isaac Henry.
He got a 5.5 in this site’s ratings for the second week running. In Sydney he did his job without standing out.
Parsons has had enough of the position debate.
“I’m actually sick of worrying about the number on his back. Let’s just create something that puts him in the game.”
Wing, fullback or centre, he said, the Wallabies should put him where he can make an impact. Then they have to give him the ball in the air.
Bryn Hall’s two ways to get Joseph Suaalii the ball
Bryn Hall, the former Crusaders and Blues halfback, took the question to the kicking tee.
His first answer was the kick-off. Kick it into the middle of the field, where the receiving side usually has a single lifter or a midfielder on his own.
“And that’s like a 70/30 and straight into the game off to counterattack, click attack for next 20 seconds which Australia like to do.”
The second was the Garryowen, a high kick the chasers can get under. Hall’s version comes straight from 9 or 10 off a four or five-man lineout, aimed at the middle of the field.
Every All Blacks back is then running towards his own line. The chasers are coming forward. Hall put that contest at 60/40 for the kicking side.
What to watch the next time Australia kick off
Watch the Wallabies’ kick-off receivers before the whistle, and then their kickers. If the ball goes long and flat to the corner, Suaalii is a chaser at best.
If it goes high to the middle, with Suaalii running from deep, the Wallabies have taken Parsons’ advice.
Hall said the Wallabies can manufacture ways to get him into the game. For whatever reason, they have not.
A kick-off to the middle in the first five minutes of the next Test would be the cheapest way to try it.
Stuff has the full Aotearoa Rugby Pod episode on YouTube.
Your turn: wing, centre or fullback?
Kiss has tried Suaalii on the wing and at 13. Parsons does not care which, as long as the ball goes up to him.
Where should Suaalii play against the All Blacks next year: wing, centre or fullback? Vote below.
Frequently asked
What position does Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii play for the Wallabies?
He started on the wing at Eden Park on 10 October 2026 and at outside centre in Sydney a week later, alongside Isaac Henry.
What did James Parsons say about Suaalii?
On the Aotearoa Rugby Pod on 18 October 2026, Parsons said Suaalii “needs to get in the air” and called a contested kick to him an attacking platform the Wallabies are not using.
Who is James Parsons?
James Parsons is a former All Blacks hooker and Blues captain. He co-hosts the Aotearoa Rugby Pod with Ross Karl and Bryn Hall.
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