Samoan fullback, Joseph Sua'ali'i has been put on notice by Mal Meninga ahead of the World Cup Final, cautioning the young star that his Kangaroos squad will hold nothing back.
He has now made 5 appearances for Matt Parish's Samoan outfit at fullback, and while Meninga bears no grudges, he admits his side is willing to get physical to shut down Sua'ali'i.
"He is (a weapon) but so is James Tedesco and we'll come up with a plan to nullify it," Meninga told theย AAP.ย
"We know he is going to run the ball back hard and we have to handle it.
"That's what rugby league is about, confrontation, and we'll come up with the right answers.
"He's a great player and he's only 19 years of age. He has the skill set and he's going to have a huge career.
"We'll do our homework on the Samoans and we'll try to pick threats and weaknesses out, but as we proved against New Zealand it's not pretty sometimes."
"I'm pretty happy that he (Suaalii) made the choice (to play for Samoa).
"That's why I pushed from the middle of the year (to know who wanted to play for Australia).
"I want players playing with passion. Obviously, he wants to play for Samoa because he's got a passion for it.
"We (Australia) are no less passionate than any other team.
"It's been great for the game for players to play for their ancestral nations. And it proves a point, they've got to the final."
Meninga has also been vocal about reforms to the international games eligibility rules after missing out on the services of Josh Papali'i, Junior Paulo and Brian To'o, Jarome Luai and Stephen Crichton, who all played for Samoa despite being Origin representatives.
