‘There's been a lot of talk': Suaalii on round two with Lions rival, and lessons from Origin send off
'Obviously, the fans and you [media] want to see a rivalry and all that, but at the end of the day, it's a team sport. I just want to do the best for the team.'
Tuipulotu has been asked to recount the confrontation several times on podcasts, but told the Kick Ons and Kick Offs pod that he had to stop, on the advice of a shared acquaintance.
'I don't want to put any targets on my back,' Tuipulotu said on the podcast.
'I know Eoin Toolan, who is the analyst at the Wallabies, and he used to be our analyst at Melbourne. He's told me to stop talking on these podcasts about Joey, cause he says he's raring to go. I don't want to put any targets on my back from big Joey.'
Suaalii confirmed he'd heard a few things about the Edinburgh episode.
'There's been a lot of recounting of that day,' he said. 'I feel like there's been a lot of talk around that moment. At the end of the day, like I said, it's a game of footy. Whatever's still on the field stays on the field.'
Sitting next to Suaalii with a grin, Wallabies lock Will Skelton said he'd enjoy a rematch.
'That's what you want, no?' Skelton said. 'You want our 12s going against the 12s; you want our 13s going against the 13s. I think no matter what, it's going to be a physical battle ...'
The odds of a fired-up Suaalii aiming for round two with Tuipulotu may not be as high as fans would hope, however, after the five-Test centre also spoke about learning from his Origin experience to keep his cool before big games.
Playing for NSW in State of Origin last year, Suaalii was sent off for a high tackle on Reece Walsh. He said he'd grown from the moment.
'The biggest thing I learned was my off-field [approach]; the way I was leading into that week,' he said. 'It taught me a lot about myself leading into these big games.
'It's just about being neutral, not being too high or too low, or not playing the game before playing it. I think that was my biggest lesson from that game. Obviously, these games are going to be big, but we're just focused on today's training session leading into the game on Saturday.'
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Skelton, who missed the Wallabies' clash with Fiji in Newcastle with a calf injury, said he was hopeful he would play against the Lions on Saturday.
'It felt a bit tight leading into that Fiji game, so we didn't want to take any risks,' he said. 'But, no, I trained with the team on Saturday and we're rearing to go.'
He said Rob Valetini was on track, after also missing the Fiji Test with a calf injury.
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