Springbok centre Damian de Allende is lining up Wallaby Joseph-Aukuso Suali’i in his cross-hairs for Saturday’s Rugby Championship rematch in Cape Town.
Former DHL Stormers midfield ace De Allende will make his return to South Africa’s starting team at DHL stadium after having to watch his teammates blow a 22-5 lead and lose 38-22 in the first Test in Johannesburg.
Joseph Suali’i had a dangerous impact in the Wallabies’ second-half comeback, after scoring an intercept try and being a handful on attack and defence for the Boks.
De Allende, who did not play at Ellis Park because of an injury, says it was a painful watch seeing his team concede 33 unanswered second-half points and is eager to right the wrongs they made in this weekend’s clash.
Boks Want To Break Wallaby Momentum
A big part of that will be stopping the Wallabies on attack, with De Allende expecting the Aussies to give their Rugby League convert a lot of ball to try and unsettle the Bokke.
Of how he and his fellow Boks are planning to put the brakes on Suali’i, De Allende said:
He is very agile and explosive and gets up in the air well. We handled him quite well last week. I’ve watched him in Rugby League, in Japan, and when he was at the (Sydney) Roosters. He was enjoyable to watch, and like he did on the weekend, he does well to keep the ball alive, especially in contact.
This weekend, we must make sure we take his space away. But it’s about doing it together, not individually. He has long arms and can get the ball away quite easily. He almost reminds me of Israel Folau, bringing that different dynamic to the Aussies.
After the Boks’ embarrassing thumping in Jozi, many fans expect them to play a more conservative traditional game in Cape Town.
However, De Allende says they are not panicking and will still be implementing attack coach Tony Brown’s game plan.
He explained:
I have been in team environments where things go wrong and everything turns sour. Here [at the Boks] it is not the case… we can’t just throw it out of the window. The first 20 minutes [at Ellis Park] were incredible, probably some of the best rugby we have ever played together. We know what went wrong and how we can fix it.
