The make-or-break position decision for the Wallabies in November

The Wallabies have been under new coaching since late July this year, and although Les Kiss has only coached for seven games, the planned transition means the new Wallabies coach has a shorter grace period.

To date, the Wallabies have shown they can play 40 minutes of scintillating, dominant rugby in 2026, but they still haven’t put together a genuine 80-minute performance.

While it’s too optimistic to assume that it will all come together against England at Twickenham this weekend, the match, and by extension the November Nations Championship, must be the window for the Wallabies to show growth from the many “lessons” they’ve spoken of throughout 2026.

There are some resounding positives to be pleased about: 22m-zone efficiency, the set piece, and their discipline.

Conversely, the two main sources of the Wallabies’ pain have been defence, where they have leaked an average of 31.4 points per game, and finishing off their line breaks.

The latter of these issues is, as Kiss has said is ‘a pass selection issue’ not a skill deficit in the group.

Should the Wallabies make 17 line breaks against the English as they did against the All Blacks in their latest Test, then you would back them to finish almost half of them off.

The former issue is the most pressing, and it comes specifically around the midfield and secondly around the ruck.

Kiss has selected the best no.13 in the country by some distance, and one of the best no.13s in the world at no.12 against England, in Len Ikitau.

It’s not that Ikitau can’t be world-class at no.12, but Kiss and the Aussie public must ask themselves: what is the likelihood that Ikitau stays at no.12 for the 2027 Rugby World Cup when everyone is available?

If the Wallabies find the centre partnership that they can stick with throughout November, which appears to be Ikitau at no.12 and Isaac Henry at no.13, then they will be on their way to being a much harder team to score against.

Should this specific positional inside and outside centre combo fail, then Kiss would be repeating a centre selection error as his predecessor, Joe Schmidt, did.

There is a reason why midfield partnerships are so crucial to a side’s defence, and why they are amongst the most important relationships on a rugby team.

They are the connection between the slower forwards on the inside and the lightning-quick backs on the outside.

That is why partnerships of Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith, Jean De Villiers and Jacque Fourie, were so amazing, because despite what they could do with the ball, they worked in tandem without it.

Now in the modern game, the centre partnerships of Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones, Damien De Allende and Jesse Kriel, and Stuart McCloskey and Gary Ringrose are pillars of their sides’ attack, but most importantly in defence.

The Wallabies have had six different centre partnerships in 10 matches, despite having the majority of the player pool healthy and available for the majority of the time.

Len Ikitau at inside with Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii at outside centre has been the most used combination with a total of four appearances; the next most frequent combo is Hunter Paisami and Isaac Henry, which has occurred just twice; the other four combos are all one-offs.

A settled combination is yet to be reached under Kiss, and therefore it is no wonder why the midfield has been easy pickings for a lot of the Wallabies’ opponents.

Schmidt persisted with Ikitau, a natural no.13 at no.12 so he could shoehorn wonderkid Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii into the outside centre position, and now Kiss has gone and done the same with Isaac Henry.

This misalignment between Kiss and Schmidt, and now the unavailability of Paisami, is slowing down the Wallabies’ bid to build a centre pairing that will take the Wallabies to the home Rugby World Cup.

When looking at the selection picture at no. 12, there are three clear candidates: Kiss’s favourite no. 12, Paisami, who now has a complicated selection picture since recently joining the Shizuoka Blue Revs in Japan.

With Paisami’s selection window now governed by more than just the compulsory World Rugby Regulation-9 window, Kiss may not see his preferred centre combination as often as he would like of Paisami at no.12 and Ikitau at no.13.

Because make no mistake, despite some early defensive lapses from Ikitau in his first game back in the Wallabies’ no.13 jersey for some time, Paisami-Ikitau was by far the best centre combo seen since 2024, when Schmidt took over.

After Paisami, clearly Ikitau is preferred, but Henry should be the man donning the no.12 jersey, especially if Kiss would optimally want to pick Ikitau at no.13 alongside Paisami.

Nevertheless, 27-year-old Henry now has a golden opportunity to put his name firmly ahead of the likes of Angus Crichton and even Samu Kerevi.

Kerevi is still very much in the picture, but with every squad he is not selected in, it gives players like Paisami and Henry the chance to make themselves indispensable for Kiss and his World Cup planning.

Henry has the ball-playing ability, the diverse skillset, and size to be a genuine Test-level inside centre, and despite a horror run of injuries, he is robust enough now to deal with the rigours of back-to-back Tests.

What he can do with the ball in hand is unquestionable; it’s how he builds a combination with Ikitau that matters, and this is how strong performances from a Henry help the Wallabies fix their defence.

The Wallabies have shown frailty in defence, and specifically in the midfield dating back to the British and Irish Lions tour in 2025.

This frailty has persisted across two defensive coaches’ systems because, despite Schmidt consistently picking the same players, he, in hindsight, backed the wrong combo, and now Kiss is yet to settle on one.

Henry and Ikitau are, in fact, well matched when it comes to defensive tendencies, but not as a no.12 and no.13, but rather the other way around.

Both have a decent turn of pace and are physically capable of dominating oncoming attackers; the biggest difference in their defensive games is their ability to be aggressive.

Ikitau trusts his skillset to shoot out of the line and make a spot tackle; he has always had that in his game, but it has been badly exposed at times in 2026 as he re-orients himself to the no.13 jersey and now into the no.12 jersey.

Henry has shown a more passive, controlled defensive ideology which has also cost the Wallabies some defensive line integrity.

Several times throughout the All Blacks Tests, Henry sat when he needed to push, drifted when he needed to be man-on-man, and failed to cleanly wrap up an opposition player when the tackle needed to be made.

These two examples of the pair’s individual issues may sound like a terrible base to build off, but no centre partnership starts perfect in their first couple of Tests, which is why now is the run of games where it must click.

Henry is not a defensively poor player; in fact, his tackle percentage of 90% across his starts is one of the best percentages of any of the centres; it is again a question of connection, or trust, with those around him.

As a no.13 his trait of being passive undoes a lot of the good work done by defence coach Scott McLeod’s system.

However, at no.12 his controlled nature would be able to be the glue for the inside and the outside players, allowing Ikitau to shoot, and he has the gas to sew that hole together.

McLeod’s system, at its purest, builds defensive pressure in every tackle by allowing individual tacklers to make aggressive decisions throughout the chain to shut down attacks when they see the opportunity.

It should have the built-in shapes to allow for that safety net to go hunting; but to date, the Wallaby players have not succeeded often enough in this crucial final step.

This is where the midfield becomes so crucial.

The positions are the pull and push on the accordion-like rhythm of a defensive line; when to stretch, and when to pull are both fine arts dictated by defensive generals in the centre positions.

It does not have to be the centres who control this, but it often is, as they spend more of their time scanning the attack and less time with their heads pilfering in rucks like back-rowers.

This is where the crucial breakdown in defensive shape started and persisted against the All Blacks in the two Bledisloe matches. 

A midfield that was unable to set the right push-and-pull rhythm left tight-five forwards covering too much space, and unset defensive lines led to weak shoulders and scrambling defensive efforts that were picked apart.

This is why this moment for Henry is so big; this is why he must seize his opportunity in the UK during November and put down a marker.

Paisami is the favourite, Crichton is coming, Kerevi is lurking, and even Ikitau is now clearly considered the more capable option at no.12.

If Henry is to be a no.13, as Kiss clearly favours him, then he must show this ability to be aggressive and squeaky clean in defence.

Again, this is not about being able to survive England’s blunt force trauma and attack at Twickenham; this is about creating a genuine Test-level partnership that other sides will fear and the Wallabies can have a defensive focal point around.

It’s early in Henry’s Test career to be expecting miracles, but as Kiss has said, “the time we have is the time we have,” so now it’s time to perform.

The Wallabies are not a good enough side to have players have serviceable yet unimpactful games, week upon week, and while Henry has done little wrong, this November tour is about doing a lot of things very right.