All Black Wallace Sititi is arguably this year’s breakout world rugby star and he can prove himself as a future New Zealand great against Ireland on Friday night.
His amazing man of the match performance in the 24-22 victory over England has convinced Dan Carter, one of the greatest ever to play the game, that Sititi could be the future All black captain, after just seven caps.
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This endorsement is remarkable for a player who began the season in the Chiefs’ development squad. Despite playing just 13 Super Rugby games, Sititi has shown maturity and an exceptional ability to handle Test rugby.
The 22-year-old’s start in professional rugby continued against England, and now the Ireland number one must try to shore up Sititi as they bid for revenge against the All Blacks, who knocked them out of the 2023 World Cup, in yet another quarter-final failure.
Sititi’s stats in the England game showed he is already a force to be reckoned with, and Ireland will have noted that he delivered three tackles, 16 carries, nine tackles and the most running meters of any player on the field.
Sititi, whose Samoan international father Semo named him after William Wallace when he played for Scotland, is loving every minute of Test action and said after beating England: “I tried to make the most of every chance and it’s just about enjoying it, relax and play our game Thanks to the boys, they give me the license to do what I do.”
Carter was at Allianz Twickenham to watch Sititi in action and Test rugby’s record scorer sat next to England’s most capped player, Ben Youngs.
Youngs revealed on For the love of Rugby podcast: “We sat with Dan Carter and we talked about Sititi, and his view was very clear; he said, ‘he’s a really mature guy, very well-spoken, he’s definitely a future All Black captain’, which is a compliment from him, Dan is the greatest of all time, and he (Sititi) obviously holds that in high esteem when he talks about being a future New Zealand captain – he’s phenomenal.”
Former All Blacks captain Kieran Read also watched from the stands at Twickenham and has predicted that Sititi will be so important to New Zealand that Ardie Savea, the reigning world player of the year, could switch to the flanks to accommodate the new star at number 8.
Read told the Irish Independent’s The Left Wing podcast: “He’s massive. He’s brilliant to watch.
“He’s going to have a massive career. It’s funny, isn’t it? He played five or six Super Rugby games this year, and just came out of nowhere, and the All Blacks picked him.
“He’s got massive raps not only as a player, but as a leader for the future as well. So he’s brilliant – I think he’ll be No.8, 100 per cent, and with Sam Cane moving on after this tour, yes , I think it’s probably appropriate for Ardie to go to the seventh.
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“He definitely looks to me like a world-class number 8.”
Savea has also paid tribute to his new back-row partner, saying: “He’s been fantastic coming into this environment, he inspires his team-mates and that’s special.”
With Sititi and New Zealand firing on all cylinders, Friday night in Dublin has all the makings of a Test match classic.
