Victor Radley makes bold claim about Samoa star as England look ahead to Rugby League World Cup semi-final

If anyone in the England squad is well placed to talk about the qualities of Samoa’s Joseph Suaali’i it’s Victor Radley.

Radley is Suaali’i’s teammate at club level at the Sydney Roosters.

Suaali’i has been one of the stars of the tournament thus far and was somewhat the match winner for Samoa in their quarter-final win over Tonga.

In the eyes of Radley he is not only Samoa’s best player, not only one of Sydney Roosters’ best players but also a “one in a generation” talent.

Speaking to Sky Sports ahead of the game, he said: “He’s a freak, he’s a young freak. He’s played good for us this year and he’s been good in this tournament.

“We’re going to have to get in front of him, he’s a really good player, a really tough, skilful player.

“He is once in a generation, we’re going to have to do a job on him. He’s a good kid, so we’ll have to do a good job on him, he’s been their best player and other than James Tedesco or Joey Manu, he’s probably been our best player at the Roosters too.”

For England it’s a case of finding a way to stop his threat which Jon Wilkin this week identified.

Wilkin noted the difference between Suaali’i’s style at fullback compared with England skipper Sam Tomkins.

Suaali’i ran for nearly four times as many metres in last week’s games showing the running threat he possesses.