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Uncapped flyer enters All Blacks' matchday 23 as Jordie Barrett a late scratch
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The Wallabies’ three biggest concerns ahead of All Blacks clash at Eden Park
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The Wallabies have done the unthinkable by putting 42 points on the Springboks in Perth; it is a statement scoreline by the now sixth-ranked Wallabies.
For all the talk about officiating, downed communications, and substitution confusion, the Wallabies nevertheless found a way to score five tries and three penalty goals, all adding up to 42 points.
The Wallabies had the Springboks dead to rights with just 10 minutes left in the game, 42 points to 17, a margin of 25 points, or more than three converted tries.
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Anyway you cut it, the Wallabies were dominant over this heavily reshuffled Springboks side.
What is perhaps more pleasing is that this is the Wallabies’ closest thing to an 80-minute performance as one could get; down to 11 men with plenty of time and a hungry bombsquad on their own tryline, the Wallabies battened down the hatches and defended for their lives.
Effort upon effort, gamesmanship, and stellar leadership from the broader group meant the Wallabies held off the Springboks’ fightback, staunching their point scoring, running the clock down, and finishing the game 42-38.
Head coach Les Kiss was ecstatic at full time, and so was the entire Wallabies team, because their belief in each other, the nous employed by the coaches, and the game plan and bench selections all paid off.
With the win now undoubtedly well enjoyed and savoured, it’s now time to look ahead to the Wallabies’ holy grail, their Everest, the toughest matches they will play all year: the Bledisloe Cup.
Centre pairing takes centre stage
Hunter Paisami and Len Ikitau, the trusted centre combination which first took shape under Dave Rennie, has now returned, and boy do they look better many caps later.
Kiss is a huge fan of Paisami, and you certainly can’t blame him; Paisami is often maligned for being too small for the Test arena, but he supplied plenty of punch, wit, deft little touches, and starch in defence to rebuff the naysayers.
Alongside Paisami, Ikitau stood very tall indeed in his no.13 jersey, and yes, it is his no.13 jersey, because although others can play there, it is clear that he is the best in the country at it.
While much of the conversation has been about the defensive difficulty the no.13 position presents, it was actually attacking from outside centre that saw Ikitau shine.
Since November 2024, the No.13 jersey has resided with Joseph-Aukuso Suaallii, and so much of the talk has been about ‘how do the Wallabies get him into more space?’
The short answer is: you don’t; you put Ikitau there, and he creates his own space.
Ikitau made 10 carries for 85 metres, second only to Max Jorgensen, and Ikitau was way ahead of Tom Wright in third place, who finished with 46 metres.
Ikitau beat a game high of five defenders with two linebreaks, and finished the game with two tries.
His defensive game was a little less shiny, but bar the one big miss on wonderkid Cannan Moddie, who put away Edwill van der Merwe for a try, he tackled at a steady 75%, making 3/4 tackles.
Paisami inside him was equally impressive, setting up one of Ikitau’s linebreaks from near their own 22m and trucked the ball up 11 times for 24m.
Paisami was either the conductor, throwing one pass fewer than flyhalf Ben Donaldson, or he was the demolition man carrying the ball the second most times for the Wallabies.
This centre pairing has legs, and we have known that since the Rennie era, but now the Wallabies will be sweating on the fitness of Ikitau, who hobbled off with an ankle injury, and Paisami, who is facing a disciplinary hearing after his high tackle on Sacha Feingberg-Mngomezulu.
It throws a huge spanner in the works and could see an entirely new centre combination for the Bledisloe, which is far from ideal and is a connection breaker if the Wallabies are to lose two of their best.
The Wallabies’ set piece strength is set for a serious shake up
The Wallabies front row held firm when the pressure came on at scrum time.
The Wallabies also continued their extremely high lineout completion rate and banked a 92% success rate against Eben Etzebeth, Franco Mostert, and Lood de Jager. This is no mean feat.
At scrum time, the front row of Angus Bell, Brandon Paenga-Amosa, and Allan Alaalatoa, as well as Taniela Tupou in the second half, held their own and at times gained ascendancy.
The Wallabies were aided by good technique as an eight and the ballast of having 136kg Lukhan Salakaia-Loto in the second row, behind the tighthead props Tupou and Alaalatoa.
This was even with the bomb squad of the best front row in the world coming on in Ox Nche, Malcolm Marx, and Wilco Louw after halftime.
However, as the minutes dragged on in the second stanza, the Boks began to gain the upper hand, and a scrum right on 56 minutes showed how the tide had clearly turned.
Replacement loosehead prop Aidan Ross struggled around the field and particularly at the scrum.
It may be a little unfair to lay all the blame at his feet, as the Wallabies lost their eighth man in the scrum and captain, Harry Wilson, in the 69th minute, but the Boks had all the momentum at the set piece after Bell went off in the 62nd minute.
The issue remains: the Wallabies are in desperate need of a James Slipper replacement in the no.17 jersey, as Bell has sewed up the starting role in no.1.
Blake Schoupp is still on track to recover from his injury midway through the Nations Championship in November, but will have no rugby under his belt, and Tom Robertson was folded in the scrum by Brady Dawson in Super Rugby AUS.
The Wallabies are seemingly stuck with rotating Ross and Isaac Aedo Kailea unless Kiss calls on new Queensland Reds recruit Tom Lambert or Brumbies big-boy Lingeton Ieli.
Neither has any Test experience but has played at representative level with Australia A and First Nations x Pasifika, respectively.
There is also one final caveat to this strength: Tupou is back off to France to join his club side Racing 92 in Paris, as the official World Rugby regulation-9 window is now over.
This means that Kiss must now turn to Zane Nonggorr and Massimo de Lutiis at tighthead prop.
While both will do a decent job at the scrum, Tupou’s vigour around the field, his sting in defence, and immense scrummaging strength will be sorely missed.
This huge Tongan Thor-sized hole on the tighthead prop side will be tough to fill whilst also searching for stability on the loosehead side.
Regardless, the Wallabies should be confident in their set piece heading into the Bledisloe Cup, but they are an injury to Bell away from going from strength to weakness at the scrum; at the lineout, they have proved they have depth.
Rugby is being driven by who wears No.9 not No.10
If it wasn’t clear who was the master and commander of the Wallabies side before the game, it is clear as hell who it is now.
Ryan Lonergan, the highly experienced Super Rugby Pacific halfback, is taking to Test rugby like a duck to water, and his game driving is what is taking the Wallabies’ attack to new heights.
His pass selection, his box-kick height, weight, direction, and ability to control tempo- fast or slow- and to change it in the blink of an eye is making his teammates live up to their potential.
While many will be discussing the performance of flyhalf Ben Donaldson, who had admittedly good and bad moments, the flyhalf is no longer the general he once was.
Donaldson had a solid game; he grew into the contest, making a few handling errors and poor passes early, which later became over-the-top passes into space and a couple of decent carries.
He kicked well, exited well, and didn’t get exposed in defence. That is the type of game which can put the Wallabies in the right parts of the field, and it is enough at present to allow the Wallabies to play their game.
This is reflected in the number of passes thrown: Donaldson threw 17 passes, Paisami threw 16 passes, and Lonergan threw a whopping 74 even though he was off the field for 10 minutes.
Oh, and if it wasn’t crystal clear how highly Kiss rates Lonergan before this match, he kept his Reds halfback Tate McDermott unused on the bench for the full 80.
Lonergan is the first name on the teamsheet every week for his leadership and game-driving ability.
As long as he is at halfback, the Wallabies carousel at no.10 can continue, not that it should; Donaldson should be given first crack at the Bledisloe at Eden Park.
With the selection continuity precarious at centre, the Wallabies will want to keep as much of their side unchanged as possible, and that goes especially for the halves.
Perhaps the biggest issue is that with McDermott unused on the bench, the Wallabies are relying very heavily on Lonergan as well as on Bell in the front row, it highlights just how shallow the depth is in some crucial positions across the side for the Wallabies.
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