Taniela Tupou pressing case for Wallabies starting spot following strong form off bench
TANIELA Tupou is ready to start a Test for the Wallabies after proving to himself, his captain and his country that he can be the rock in a “life or death scrum” on full-time with the season on the line.
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TANIELA Tupou is ready to start a Test for the Wallabies after proving to himself, his captain and his country that he can be the rock in a “life or death scrum” on full-time with the season on the line.
Wallabies boss Michael Cheika insists there should be “no hurry” to rush his giant 133kg trump after just five Test cameos off the bench but his impact keeps suggesting otherwise.
The coach seems set on using Tupou off the bench against Argentina on Saturday night on the Gold Coast when Israel Folau (ankle) and Adam Coleman, the proud new dad of a baby girl yesterday, are likely to return to the side.
Cheika said his tango with new Pumas coach Mario Ledesma would be like coaching against a crafty brother so close were they when the Argentinian was scrum coach for the Wallabies (2015-17) and an ally at Stade Francais and the Waratahs.
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Ledesma would nod approvingly at the scrum weapon that Tupou has become because the bull-necks of the front-row are worshipped in Argentina.
“Tongan Thor” gave a riveting insight into the desperate yet calm, task-focused climax to the gutsy 23-18 victory last Saturday night when South Africa had all the ammunition to steal it at Suncorp Stadium.
While prop Tupou’s superior scrummaging had already earned a key three-point play, he’d tweaked his massive neck and upper back in a follow-up engagement.
Captain Michael Hooper, on a sore hamstring himself, looked into Tupou’s face and asked for one last, huge shove to protect his team just 5m out from his own goalposts.
“On that last scrum Hoops came up to me and said ‘Nela, I really need this from you’,” Tupou said.
“I looked straight at him and said ‘I’ll give it to you’.
“It was pretty much life or death, everything I had, because a penalty and they pretty much win the game.”
Tupou’s stance against Tendai Mtawarira was strong, centre Matt Toomua made a copybook first tackle, the defence forced an intercept and the Wallabies defused potential disaster.
“I know now I can challenge some of the best props in the world because I’ve seen ‘Beast’ smash a few,” Tupou said.
The resilience shown by Tupou, Hooper, Izack Rodda, when he returned to the fray with a dislocated finger, and veteran hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau, for the final eight minutes after looking spent after 20, was indicative of how deep the Wallabies dug.
Replacement lock Rob Simmons showed it a different way by rushing onto a Brisbane-Gold Coast flight, when storms stalled Brisbane flights, and being driven direct to the ground by wife Lucy for 6pm when Coleman was a late withdrawal.
“As soon as the game finished, I walked up to someone I can’t remember, and I told them, mate, ‘How good’s winning?,” Tupou said.
The smiles at yesterday’s Wallabies fan day said so again even when dumped flyhalf Bernard Foley wryly suggested he wanted Cheika on the hot seat in the dunking machine so he could trigger a splash with a ball toss.
“We used the word resilience a lot...we were comfortable in some really tough places and late in the game had to make some tackles, some key one-on-ones when the Springboks were pressuring,” Hooper said.
Backrower David Pocock’s stiff neck is still to come right.
Originally published as Taniela Tupou pressing case for Wallabies starting spot following strong form off bench