‘Achieved what I needed’: Wallaby draws line through NRL return – for now

Even with the potential carrot of NRL salary cap relief to tempt Wallabies stars into a code switch, one of Super Rugby’s most high-profile converts has declared he has unfinished business in the 15-man game.

While Suliasi Vunivalu has refused to rule out a move back to rugby league one day, adamant he could not predict his future, the Queensland Reds winger believes he has achieved everything he desired at the Melbourne Storm.

Suliasi Vunivalu will not rule out a return to the NRL, but it is not on his radar at the moment.Credit: Getty

The NRL has hinted it was considering offering financial leeway to clubs seeking to bring Wallabies and Super Rugby talent to the game, but as it stands, Vunivalu is not someone who will entertain the notion any time soon.

A two-time premiership winner in the purple jersey, the 28-year-old now has his sights set on cementing a place on the Wallabies flank for the long haul – a task made easier by the defection of Mark Nawaqanitawase to the Sydney Roosters.

Signed with the Reds until the end of 2025 – keeping him inked with Rugby Australia until the British and Irish Lions tour – Vunivalu said beyond that, he harboured ambitions to travel the globe and redeem the nation’s recent World Cup failure.

“I don’t know my future, I’m not going to close any doors to anything, but I feel like I’ve achieved what I needed to achieve in league,” Vunivalu told this masthead.

“There are some personal achievements that I want … in union – the British and Irish Lions next year, and I want to travel the world as well.

“Who knows? I just don’t know what my future holds, but there’s other stuff I’m looking forward to, and being a regular with the Wallabies.”

Vunivalu’s rugby union tenure has been marred by injury setbacks, with a pair of hamstring tears restricting his presence.

But he did enough to feature in each Wallabies fixture at the World Cup, an experience that boosted his confidence of a breakout Reds campaign, despite the results and fallout of the Eddie Jones era.

Suliasi Vunivalu scores a try against France in a World Cup warm-up match in August last year.Credit: AP

He has now even found himself learning under another former rugby league winger – Queensland coach Les Kiss – a shared experience the towering Fijian flyer admits was news to him until recently.

But Vunivalu also revealed that through his meetings with the incoming Reds mentor, it would be a back-to-the-future move, with Kiss determined to get far more ball to the try-scoring machine.

“The first day he came in he spoke to me and said he was really excited to use me, and that, ‘I’ll be doing a bit of work this year if you put in the work – just be fit, and we’ll look after you’,” Vunivalu said.

“He said, ‘I want you to be busy, I want you to get the ball 15-plus times a game’.

“How I was training and how I was trying to reach my speed goal, I think that’s what stuffed up my hamstring and put me down, but last year I had a couple of games and didn’t miss a game in the World Cup, and I took that confidence into this year.

“I hadn’t done that much speed [training] when I was in league, I could easily do speed, but not as much … but I had a chat with our trainer and spoke about, ‘How can we fly?’ I want to do this with speed, and it really worked last year.

“We had high expectations of what we could achieve [at the World Cup], but obviously that didn’t go our way. But I didn’t even expect to be playing for those five games … being in that experience was a really great experience, and it shows the hard work I put in to get to that moment.

“I’ve moved on from that. I can’t dwell on that, or it will affect my year with the Reds.”

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