Michael Hooper makes case for Tane Edmed to start against All Blacks

The future of the Wallabies’ No.10 jersey is up for grabs, and due to a lack of consistent availability from the group of hopefuls, the present is as murky as what lies ahead.

Tom Lynagh, James O’Connor, and Tane Edmed are the three flyhalves vying for the starting gig at Eden Park next weekend, and all three have had a crack in the gold No.10 jersey already in 2025.

Lynagh cut his teeth in one of international rugby’s most unique challenges, playing the British & Irish Lions, this July. O’Connor’s return to the Test fold after a few years in the wilderness has been a roaring success, but at 35, his time is limited.

Edmed was the latest to try his hand at 10, and produced a rocks and diamonds showing in last weekend’s loss to Los Pumas. Those diamonds, though, were enough to convince former Wallabies captain Michael Hooper that he deserves another crack.

“I’d like to see Tane start again,” the Wallabies centurion told Stan Sport‘s Inside Line panel. “I think we’re all in agreement that it’d be great to have James on the bench, but it’d be tough to come in for a game, for a start, and then be dropped, and then that’s a bit of a storyline that you’ve set up; you perform in one game or you’re out.

“I’d go Tane again, and I think Tom would be a natural fit on the bench if he’s all cleared (from injury).

“I think it would be nice to see Tane get another go at it. What I really liked about Tane’s performance was that he was very vocal in the back. And I think the Wallaby 10 at the moment isn’t the guy that’s doing the steps and doing the chips to himself; he’s actually largely a facilitator.

“Now you’ve got Jake Gordon, who’s going to be fit, ready, and Tate (McDermott) has been looking fantastic. So a lot of the Wallaby play actually comes from the nine in the shape that they run. You see them going down the 15s a lot, then back, trying to keep the tempo of the game up, and the 10 is actually out the back of that, communicating really well, and I’m seeing Tane do a bit of that.

“Now I’m not a 10, and others would know much more about what he would be doing behind the scenes. We see some big errors, and they look like big errors, but that’s not the whole piece of what he’s doing. From what I saw, there were some really nice little things; that 50:22 that he cuts back down the edge, that’s good vision.

“And even after a couple of mistakes, good confidence to be able to pull the trigger on that. So, I like that as a former captain, seeing a 10 step up and go ‘Nah, I saw that and I’m going to hit it’.

“It shows that he’s made a couple of mistakes, but he’s still able to stay in the game. I’ll go back to that point, the 10 is a position that we love to be really acidic on.”