Fiji-born dual cross code Suliasi Vunivalu is hungry to start for the Wallabies against Georgia in their opening Rugby World Cup match next Sunday.
Vunivalu was a major surprise for the Wallabies on their wing as fellow teammate Marika Koroibete was rested in Australia’s 41-17 loss to France at Stade de in their final warm-up match last week.
The 27-year-old scored his maiden Test try after beating three defenders despite copping a yellow card in the game.
“If I put pressure on both of them, it makes them try and perform better,” Vunivalu said, Sydney Morning Herald reports.
“Whatever is good for the team, I’ll back it. I want them to play good and whatever opportunity comes up, I’ll take it.”
Vunivalu said he took the advice of another cross-code star, former Wallabies and Kangaroos representative Mat Rogers in trusting his natural ability and now the speedster is gaining confidence on the international stage.
“I thought I had a good performance out there. I trained well this week. I thought I just needed that second game in me. I left it all out there and backed myself.”
“Walking out at the captain’s run … I couldn’t believe we were playing on this field. I was feeling pumped. I was confident. I knew I’d play well.”
The Wallabies will travel to Saint-Etienne which is three hours south of Paris on a train to base themselves for a week before heading back to the nation’s capital to prepare for the Georgia fixture.
“There’s definitely going to be nerves [in the Georgia game] because there’s pressure on it.”
“We just need to go back and review this [France] game. We have a good connection with this group. The World Cup is anyone’s game.”
“We’ve got it in us. We get ourselves in good positions but we just never execute. We either knock on or give the ball back. If we can go up there and get points out of it, we’ll be good.”
“The boys are tight and we want to win. We’re doing our best.”
