As Pietsch and Marky Mark flourish, where does Aus A tour leave Suli Vunivalu in Wallaby winger pecking order?

The Australia A tour of Japan was meant to help answer the questions about Suliasi Vunivalu. If anything it just raised more.

The burning one is where does the former NRL star now sit in Australia’s winger power rankings?

Vunivalu was given three starts in an entertaining and open series, played without the oppressing stress of Test match footy, and, one try aside in Fukuoka, packed his highlights into 10 short minutes in game three at Osaka on Friday night.

He had Andrew Mehrtens and Justin Harrison singing his praises for showing a different side to his game, with more involvement, some decent passing skills and a couple of short bursts. But unfortunately, as has been the case in his injury-hit rugby stint so far, he failed to kick on.

A couple of bad defensive errors led to Japanese tries on a night where the hosts crossed seven times and the visitors eight in a 50-48 loss. Vunivalu’s absence from the score sheet in a rollicking first half was in contrast to the performance of his half-time replacement Dylan Pietsch. The Waratah scored a second after the siren and his first was a brilliant moment of destructive running, leaving two potential tacklers floundering.

“He’s just improved every week,” coach Jason Gilmore told The Roar. “He’s very diligent with his preparation and he wants to be the best. He works hard at his game. He’s still got some key areas as an outside back that he’s got to keep working to be the best.

“But what you see is what you get – runs the ball hard, tackles hard. As a former backrower, his jackal skills and broken skills are very good for a winger. He’s had a rock solid year that he should have been able to launch in the next year.”

The Spring Tour squad is expected to be named on Sunday with players meeting up from Monday. Pietsch wouldn’t expect to be among its number.

Wallabies skipper James Slipper joins Brett McKay and Harry Jones to talk Spring Tour on The Roar Rugby Podcast

Asked if the former sevens star was Wallaby ready, Gilmore was cautious.

“I’m not sure. Obviously there are a fair few outside backs getting around,” Gilmore said.

“What I’d say is Dylan won’t let you down through effort, or toughness. It’s just probably the subtleness of wing play [he needs to improve] and with another year under his belt at Super level I’m sure he’ll launch.”

Gilmore is right about one thing – Australia has plenty of candidates looking for Wallaby 11 or 14 jerseys. Alongside the stand-out, Marika Koroibete, who won’t tour, Tom Wright and Andrew Kellaway are in the mix.

Vunivalu has only had two minutes of Test action but was the most used winger by Gilmore in the 2-1 series win in Japan. But instead of rising to the top of the chasing pack, he might have drifted behind both Pietsch and Tahs teammate Mark Nawaqanitawase in the pecking order.

Depending on who Rennie prefers at fullback – and Tom Banks will have first dibs there – Vunivalu might have left Japan as the fifth or sixth best winger available, a clear disappointment considering the efforts that went into signing him from rugby league.

‘Marky Mark’ showed plenty of spark again on Friday night – there was a little retro Campo-style goosestep thrown into the mix in the first half and he played a pivotal role twice in Pietsch’s second to cap the game. His line burst and perfect kick ahead put the Australians on the cusp of the line and then he joined in to float a long wide pass to Tom Banks that was shuffled onto the unmarked Pietsch.

Gilmore has been reluctant to talk up Nawaqanitawase too much on tour but his stock is rising as fast as Vunivalu’s is falling.

“When he backs himself and plays his stuff, he plays his best footy,” Gilmore said. “You saw that tonight when he committed hard to his carry generally. He generally got through the line, which was good. He’s just got to make sure at this level the consistency of his actions is at a high level by playing tough.

“This tour, in the majority, he’s done that pretty well.”

Gilmore was more complimentary about the performance of Tom Robertson, who had to put in an 80-minute shift after an injury to Poe Fa’amausili that will likely rule him out of the Spring Tour.

“I thought we showed composure in that second half to get us back into the game,” said Gilmore of the effort to almost snatch a win near the end. “Cadeyrn Neville came on and really settled our kickoffs and set piece down. Dylan Pietsch had a really good impact on that left wing both in attack and defence.

“But probably the guy that doesn’t get the wraps is Tommy Robertson. He played tighthead for us and had to go to loosehead through injury and he played a full 80 minutes in a different position. That was outstanding.”

Ned Hanigan should be on the plane to Europe and had his best game of the series after moving from blindside to lock.

“We put him back in the second round, which he probably wasn’t over the moon about,” Gilmore joked.

“It just brings him into the middle of the field. He’s been playing on the edge as a six in the first two games and he’s done a good job, but Ned’s best attributes are his contact skills.

“He’s busy, got high work rate, carries, tackles, good breakdown skill. I feel he’s that real good middle forward and it brings his best skills to the fore.”

Results were never the main driver of this tour and it has exposed players to another level of international competition. It has exposed some flaws and plenty of promise as well.

“It’s been excellent. Both on and off the field. Just to see the growth of the boys on the field getting the opportunity to play high-level football against a really strong opposition,” said Gimore.

“Japan rolled out three really strong teams so for our boys to go back to back was excellent. Then just being in a foreign country -We’ve got a lot of boys who haven’t haven’t toured for a while with COVID or haven’t been to Japan before.”