The three unsung heroes of the 2025 Wallabies

Every sport, every team, every game needs a poster boy, the ones who bring the crowds and inspire the next generation, but they can’t shine without the grafters.

In 2025, you can take your pick. Tom Wright, in his few Tests, provided razzle-dazzle, Max Jorgensen was out-and-out the Wallabies’ best try scorer, and Will Skelton’s alpha performances and mindsight gave his teammates belief in themselves, and it gave supporters a reason to puff out their chests.

However, the grafters, the foot soldiers, the players that never say die are the ones who really make the dial shift when push comes to shove.

Head coach Joe Schmidt has been a calm, more pragmatic, and long-term planning mentor to this group of Wallabies, and it shows in the kind of players who have found their place under his tutelage.

The cream rises to the top, and there are a handful of players who took big strides in 2025 and who will be difference makers in 2026.

Dylan Pietsch, winger, Western Force

Pietsch is one of those players who had his game time cut short through injury, but in the four games he played, he was a Test match animal.

Whether it was his strong hips through contact, his elite ability to finish off tries or his staunch work in defence, Pietsch acted with purpose.

His bulk and confrontational nature saw him rattle the British and Irish Lions in Sydney, and it was his unique ability to jam, hit-and-stick in defence that saw oppositions struggle in attack.

Go back and watch games with and without Pietsch; the Wallabies’ defence regularly conceded more metres on the edges when Pietsch was absent.

His great reading of the game would see him drift and retreat just long enough to ensure he remained connected, but as soon as he got connected with his inside man, he jammed and whacked the oncoming attacker, stopping the attack dead.

His work in the air was also something that wasn’t heralded enough.

While Corey Toole and Harry Potter are quicker, more agile options, Pietsch’s bulk is something the Wallabies’ defence needed, particularly while Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii was finding his feet in the Test arena and after the Wallabies lost attacking weapon Wright to a season-ending ACL injury.

Australia has a surplus of good wingers but Pietsch is reaching his peak and while he will be a great asset for the Western Force during Super Rugby Pacific 2026, his role for the Wallabies will be just as important come the July Tests against three European foes.

Zane Nonggorr, Prop, Queensland Reds

While a lot of the focus was on who would start between James Slipper and Angus Bell, and whether Taniela Tupou would stand up, Nonggorr was quietly achieving in the background.

He didn’t show dominance in his scrummaging throughout the 2025 SRP season, which made for a questionable prop roster selection once the squad was announced for the Lions’ tour, but he proved all the haters wrong.

Like many of Eddie Jones’ young selections in 2023, Nonggorr was like a lamb to slaughter when he was selected on the bench for the Highveld 43-12 demolition of an understrength Springboks side.

Two years have now passed, and as expected, with more time and experience, as well as another two years of growing into his body, the 24-year-old is finding his feet at scrum time.

He held his own against the Lions, Springboks on two occasions, and Fiji, and he effectively neutralised opposition loosehead props against Argentina, Italy, Ireland, and Japan.

He played nine Tests and started in just one of them, but at his young age, being able to get that much exposure to the best scrummagers in the world and playing behind Tupou and Allan Alaatoa is a great achievement.

Nonggoorr has always been a grafter, but he is only now starting to work out how best to use his hulking frame at scrum time.

Nonggorr, like many Wallabies front rowers, owes a lot to recently departed scrum guru Mike Cron; his vast experience, more than 200 Test matches worth, will be sorely missed, but some of that IP will live on in the young Wallabies front row cohort.

Nonggorr has a vital role to play for his club side, the Queensland Reds, in 2026.

On one hand, he needs to continue to hone his craft and continue to grow, but on the other, he must push to be the starting tighthead prop ahead of journeyman and three-Test All Black, Jeffery Toomaga-Allen.

In the past two seasons, JTA, Fijian international Peni Ravai, and dual international Alex Hodgman have anchored the Reds scrum; now, only JTA remains.

The Reds have added another dual international, Aidan Ross, to the loosehead side, but Nonngorr must kick on in 2026 and really command that starting jersey; his performance at scrum time could be the difference between winning and losing in a pack that has a comparatively depleted tight-five.

Tom Hooper, backrow, Northampton Saints

No one has taken bigger strides on the Test stage than Hooper in 2025. From being chewed up and spat out by the Springboks in Pretoria in 2023 to being a frontline Wallaby in 2025.

Hooper appeared to be heavily influenced by Skelton’s tough guy attitude during the Lions series, and at times, it felt as though he was the only one in gold truly going after the opposition when the moments mattered.

He has become a genuine Test-level ball-carrier now, and if he hits you in defence, you stay hit.

As the year went on and the Wallabies got exhausted and began to carry injuries, Hooper was forced into the second row and performed with the same vigour and impact as he did from the side of the scrum.

In 2026, the Wallabies will need to use Hooper more, but what is clear now is that he is a backrower, and the Wallabies must select a second row and backrow around him and Fraser McReight to be able to get the best impact of their big men.

Despite Hooper plying his trade in England for the Exeter Chiefs alongside ACT Brumbies teammate Len Ikitau, Hooper remains a crucial part of the Wallabies set-up.

So, when Schmidt or new coach Les Kiss comes knocking, Hooper must look to take his game to yet another level after a maiden season in the tough English Premiership and Challenge Cup competitions.