Wallabies scrum-half Ryan Lonergan has leapt to the defence of teammate Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii following criticism from a fellow code-hopper, as Carter Gordon firms for a return in the Australia backline against Scotland.
Suaalii came in for stinging criticism from former England and Wigan winger Chris Ashton, who lashed the Australian following his performance in the Wallabies' 45-22 loss at Twickenham on Sunday.
Ashton said Suaalii "did not looking like a rugby union player" and that if "he was English, he wouldn't be playing for England" among other strong critiques.
But speaking in Edinburgh on Tuesday, Lonergan went into bat for his backline teammate, saying the winger had performed reasonably well with limited opportunities at Twickenham.
"He's a great teammate, a great athlete, and I think he played pretty well on the weekend with the opportunities that we gave him as a team, which weren't many," Lonergan said.
"I thought he was good in the air and he put himself in a position around the park to be able to attack when we could.
"But I think, as a team, we just didn't give the strike power that we have [enough] opportunity through our inaccuracies throughout launch, and then just our speed of movement was down.
"So when you look at the back three we got, the strike power we got, when they're not getting opportunities, I don't think it's through a fault of their own. It's probably more the symptom of what's going on on the inside. I think that (Ashton's spray) is probably a little bit unfair on 'Su'."
Suaalii's attacking stats weren't all that bad considering how tough the Wallabies found the English defence to crack, the winger running for 61 metres on eight carries, numbers that put him behind only fellow outside back Max Jorgensen.
But Ashton also zeroed in on Suaalii's rucking, which he said was virtually non-existent.
"When I'm watching him, I'm watching him ruck. He looks like me when I didn't have a clue. He doesn't know how to ruck. He doesn't know where to hit the ruck," Ashton added.
"They're [Australia] in all sorts and they're trying to force him into this team, and they've signed more rugby league lads."
Suaalii is expected to be retained for the Wallabies' clash with Scotland, who are ranked one place higher than Australia, on Sunday afternoon [Monday morning AEDT] at Murrayfield.
Whether that comes on the wing once more or sees him shift back into a midfield partnership with Len Ikitau remains to be seen, with Wallabies coach Les Kiss to name his squad on Friday.
But Carter Gordon is closing in on a return to the No. 10 jersey having not featured for the Wallabies since he broke his leg in the second Test against Argentina in September.
Kiss said that Gordon was incredibly close to a recall for the clash with England but the coach instead opted to retain Declan Meredith at No. 10, with the Brumbies playmaker later enduring a difficult afternoon in London.
Meredith was unable to inspire any positive Australian attack, though the No. 10 was playing behind a badly beaten Wallabies pack, one that felt the benching of Rob Valetini perhaps more than Kiss had anticipated.
The Wallabies may also look to recall Brandon Paenga-Amosa and Tom Hooper, with the Exeter back-rower also having missed a chunk of Test rugby, on account of a reoccurring shoulder injury and then the staging of the Bledisloe Cup series outside of World Rugby's designated Test-match window.
"Everyone's on deck. We had a full training group last week and those boys were in our sessions," scrum coach John Ulugia said.
"Tom Hooper's a good player to have within the group, so we've kept close tabs on him. We're just ticking the boxes there off his shoulder, making sure he's good to go and then hopefully by Friday when we name the team, he's part of our group."
Australia lost their most recent Test with Scotland in 2024 and four of the last five, the Wallabies set to confront the same 10-12 axis of Finn Russell and Sione Tuipulotu that exposed them during the first Test of last year's British and Irish Lions series.
But victory over Scotland would go a long way to securing Australia third place in the southern hemisphere table of the Nations Championship, potentially earning them another shot at England, or a clash with Andy Farrell's Ireland pending the results of the final two weeks of the cross-pool play.