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Six Wallabies abroad who must come into the reckoning in 2026
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt has assembled a 40-man squad to meet in early January for a three-day training camp.
They are all the same faces we have come to expect during Schmidt’s two-year tenure, except for one rookie, rising Queensland Reds’ prop Massimo De Lutiis.
While it is a strong squad that is now showing some depth and the right age profile, there are still vital players missing from the mix.
No overseas players have been required to attend, which means mainstays in 2025 like Will Skelton, Angus Bell, Taniela Tupou, Tom Hooper, Len Ikitau, and James O’Connor are all absent.
That is a list with serious experience and rich form that is missing from this crew, who will undertake the cathartic task of reviewing what was ultimately a disappointing 2025 season ahead of the inaugural Nations Championship Cup games in July.
However, even if you add these six players into the mix, there are still other players abroad that have plenty to offer the Wallabies, and if they are to do so with the most positive impact, their reintegration must begin in 2026.
Izack Rodda, second row, Provence (ProD2 – France)
The 29-year-old is now into his second season in the French second division, and although it would be better if he were playing in the Top14, it is difficult to deny Rodda’s elite skills.
It’s crazy to think that his last cap was won in 2020, but the 34-cap former Wallaby is still kicking and, by all reports, playing well.
He is an adept lineout caller and plays his game with a bit of edge. He’s always been confrontational, and when he was playing for the Western Force previously, he looked much bigger than his opposition and teammates.
At 202cm and 123kgs, Rodda is now a fully fledge second rower who knows how to best use his mass.
The Wallabies are not shy of athletic grafters in their second row stocks, but when Skelton is unavailable, and Rodda’s former Queensland Reds partner Lukhan Salakaia-Loto is injured, the Wallabies lack a dominant presence in the row.
There are other domestic-based options like Matt Philip, Darcy Swain, and Miles Amatosero, who all fit this enforcer role, but with Rodda not ruling out the possibility of coming back to Super Rugby, why not bring him into the Wallaby environment?
It could be the carrot that sees him back playing Super ahead of the 2027 RWC.
Jordan Petaia, back three/centre, Perpignan (Top14 – France)
Petaia has made a seamless transition back into rugby after his escapade into the NFL.
Although he didn’t make it big, the experience nonetheless would’ve been priceless.
He is now plying his trade in the south of France, and he has looked good in the limited minutes he has played.
His best performance has come at fullback in the Challenge Cup against one of the URC’s worst teams, the Dragons, but he nonetheless looked fit, fast, and displayed great rugby IQ.
What makes Petaia still such a great option for the Wallabies is that he is big, versatile, and experienced.
At just 25 years old, Petaia has played in two Rugby World Cups and has 27 caps to his name.
Petaia also offers raw dimensions that few others can. At 190cm and 98kgs, he is equally able to be a threat aerially on the wing or at fullback, whilst having the bulk to be a weapon at centre.
The only other player that matches him physically in the 40-man squad is 196cm and 96kgs Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, but even then, they are very different builds.
Suaalii is a more slender and even build, while Petaia is lower half-heavy with plenty of power to bust tackles and to leap for high balls.
The Wallabies are not short on good wingers, but what they do lack across the backline is size, and if Tom Wright should go down again before the 2027 World Cup, the Wallabies need experienced options to slot into the fold. Petaia can be that player.
Noah Lolesio, Flyhalf, Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi (Japan Div2)
Now, although Lolesio has played for the Wallabies as recently as July 6 this year, it feels like a long time ago the Australian rugby media landscape heard from him.
The 26-year-old has 30 Wallaby caps to his name, and outside O’Connor is the most experienced flyhalf for club and country by some stretch.
Playing Div2 in Japan is not ideal for a player still honing their craft as a Test-level game driver, but one thing that is in Lolesio’s favour is that he has shown he can boss a Test side around the field.
After so many finals campaigns with the ACT Brumbies and then 14 Tests across 2024/25, Lolesio is now a flyhalf who plays in the right parts of the field and who can guide his pack around the field to good effect.
It must be remembered that Lolesio only fell out of favour with the Wallabies in 2025 due to a season-ending spinal injury, but he has now recovered from that and is well into preseason with Shuttles Aichi.
Tom Lynagh, Tane Edmed, and Ben Donaldson are all much better flyhalves than they were even 12 months ago.
Carter Gordon has stepped back on the scene, and his raw talent and rugby IQ are still evident in his play.
But this once youthful group of playmakers is now well and truly into their mid-20s; the excuses of youth, inexperience, and limitations will not cut it in 2026, except for the youngest, Lynagh.
Lolesio is the most successful no.10 of the last five years, and he has come out the other side of his baptism of fire and his fair share of volatile coaching environments to be a sturdy player who can be the game driver the Wallabies need.
Izaia Perese, centre/back three, Leicester Tigers (English Premiership)
Perese may be the most controversial player on this list, if only because he has always performed brilliantly at club level and just hasn’t been able to find the same cut through in his Tests.
To be fair to Perese, he’s only been given six opportunities on the Test stage, one of them cruelled by injury against England in 2022.
At 179cm and 96kgs, he is very much in the mould of current Wallabies centres Len Ikitau and Hunter Paisami, but much like the other two, Perese has his own unique strengths.
He is a direct runner; he’s both the fastest and most powerful of this trio, which also makes him the most versatile, being able to slot in on the wing.
At 28 years of age, and more than 83 club games across French Top14, English Prem, and Super Rugby Pacific, Perese is now an experienced campaigner reaching his peak as a direct ball-running centre.
Now, had the Wallabies centre stocks been deeper, Perese may not have been required on this list; however, we’ve seen that Schmidt has only used three centre options in 2025, Ikitau, Paisami, and Suaalii, with Filipe Daugunu and Hamish Stewart sprinkled in as well.
If one of the former three goes down, then the list of genuine gainline winners becomes desperately thin.
Gainline is the single biggest necessity in the Wallabies’ current model, and without Paisami and Ikitau, there are no others who have proved they are metre eaters in tight.
While there are other options domestically, like David Feliuai at the ACT Brumbies, rising star Dre Pakeho at the Reds, and Joey Walton at the Waratahs, none have so far proved they can be a genuine threat at the Test level.
Samu Kerevi, centre, Uruyasu D-Rocks (Top League Japan)
The final player on this list is none other than 50-capped Wallaby Kerevi, who at age 32 is still aiming to play for the Wallabies at the 2027 Rugby World Cup.
Kerevi has reiterated his burning desire to play in the tournament in an interview with Japan-based journalist, Mark Pickering.
“I want to be part of the team in 2026 and 2027, until my legs can’t go anymore. There’s only certain things I can control, and that’s my performance here at the D-Rocks for the next couple of years,” he told Pickering last week.
There’s no denying that Kerevi still has what it takes at the club level, but it has been a long road back after an ACL rupture in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, which saw him not at his best at the 2023 RWC.
Although Kerevi will be 34 in 2027, at 108kgs and 186cm, he has a unique bulk that only he possesses in the Australian landscape. Not to mention that only Ikitau in the centres rivals him for experience.
Although Kerevi has the drive and the matrix of skills to be an asset to the Wallabies, quite simply, he is someone who wins the gainline, and that remains one of the biggest dictators of Wallaby performances.
The Wallabies are finally building true depth, finally cultivating the right age profile, and some of these players can expedite this process and bolster reserves immediately.
However, their successful integration remains to be seen in how Rugby Australia and Schmidt and/or Les Kiss work with the players and their overseas clubs to get the most fluent and unhindered access to these players.
Rugby’s best of the best, ranked by experts. Check out our list of the Top 100 Men's Rugby Players 2025 and let us know what you think!
