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Three Wallabies added to AUNZ squad to take on B&I Lions
By Henry Lee
AUNZ Invitational XV head coach Les Kiss has announced three Wallabies to be a part of the squad to take on the British and Irish Lions ahead of their first Test against the Wallabies.
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The match will be held at the Adelaide Oval on July 12, one week before the first Test at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium.
Kiss’s side will now include Wallabies players Brandon Paenga-Amosa, Marika Koroibete and Pete Samu, who have all played over 20 Tests for the Wallabies.
Samu, who is now 33 years old, will return home to Australia with a European Rugby Champions Cup title with French side the Bordeaux Begles, and recently announced he will play for the Waratahs in 2026.
Paenga-Amosa will look to make his second appearance against the 2025 British and Irish Lions, after featuring in the first match of the tour in Perth with the Force.
Koroibete is a dual-code international, after playing the 13-man code for Fiji in 2015 and representing the Wallabies 63 times since making the transition to rugby union, scoring 20 tries for Australia.
Having spent time at the Panasonic Wild Knights for the last four years in the Japanese Division 1, Koribete will be a smart addition for the matchup on July 12.
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The announcement of these three Australia internationals comes after last week, Rugby Australia announced that New Zealand players Joshua Fusitu’a, David Havili, Shaun Stevenson, Shannon Frizell and Ngani Laumape will also be involved in the match for the AUNZ invitational XV.
Kiss, who will coach the team combined with players from Australia and New Zealand for the first time since 1989, believes the game will be a good test for him personally.
“This AUNZ team is an opportunity just to dig a bit deeper into that landscape of international rugby for sure, but there’ll be a lot of Wallabies coming back into that as well, at different levels from our pathway,” Kiss told media at Suncorp Stadium after the Reds’ 52-12 defeat.
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After Wednesday’s match against the British and Irish Lions in Brisbane, Kiss spoke to the media about his connection with the Wallabies players and staff, ahead of taking over from Joe Schmidt next year.
“Joe and I are pretty close anyway. He stays very close with all the provincial coaches, and we’re welcome at any time into the camp. So I’ll be taking up those opportunities when I can for sure, as will the other coaches.
“So it’s no different to any of them, we want to stay tight-knit and create that camaraderie between the states and the national team for sure, so that won’t stop.”
