The Sydney Daily Telegraph is reporting that Melbourne Storm winger Suliasi Vunivalu could be set to switch to Rugby Union and play for The Australian Wallabies.
It has been a bit of a strange week for the Melbourne Storm try scorer, after being king hit in Bali and seeing his team mate Nelson Asofa-Solomona banned for three games and fined $15,000 for trying to protect him during the incident.
Suliasi Vunivalu has scored 72 tries in just 92 games for the Melbourne Storm, a phenomenal try scoring rate, one that puts him on track to become one of the games greatest ever try scorers. He has also played 8 test matches for Fiji scoring 12 tries…more than one try per game.
The loss of Vunivalu would be a bad one for Rugby League. Yes, there is no doubt there are other players who would step into his shoes and perform well, but after the loss of Semi Radradra and Marika Koroibete to Rugby Union, the game of Rugby League needs to start asking itself how committed it is to developing Fiji as a Rugby League playing nation.
Part of that development is to keep Rugby League stars from Fiji playing Rugby League.
Let’s hope Vunivalu turns down the offer to play Rugby Union for Australia and sticks with the Melbourne Storm. To see another Fijian try scorer leave the game when they are on track to possibly break the all time try scoring record would be a terrible loss.
