LONG READ What is Australia’s first-choice team and how far does depth go, a year out from RWC27?

It was a really important win for Australia in Argentina, their fourth straight in 2026 and the first time they’ve enjoyed a streak this long since beating Portugal in their final match of RWC2023 – the end of the season to forget – and then winning their first three Tests under Joe Schmidt in 2024.

Schmidt’s Wallabies never won four in a row, but Les Kiss’s side can this Saturday in Mendoza. If they succeed, it would also see their overall streak – taking into account the win over Italy in Schmidt’s last Test – equal Dave Rennie’s run of five straight wins in 2021.

After resting bodies in Townsville a fortnight ago – Allan Ala’alatoa, Josh Canham and Rob Valetini all sat out the big win over Japan, while Tom Hooper, Len Ikitau and Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii were all at different stages of injury recovery – Kiss rested a few more for the first Pumas clash in South America.

Harry Wilson and Taniela Tupou sat out the 27-21 win in San Salvador, while Lukhan Salakaia-Loto was also omitted following the Townsville win.

There could well be more ‘load management’ this week. Angus Bell, Jeremy Williams, Fraser McReight, Ryan Lonergan, Tom Wright and Tate McDermott are the remaining players to have suited up for all six Wallabies games this season far, albeit with different numbers of bench starts for the individuals.

Realistically, the Japan series and this Argentina tour were going to be the only real opportunities to manage player loads. It has made, and does make, sense to take advantage of fixtures against teams in similar areas on the world rankings to do this. The Test in Mendoza will be the last opportunity, with the next block of matches representing the biggest games of the year.

Once the Wallabies get home, they’ll host South Africa in Perth at the end of this month, before back-to-back Bledisloe Cup Tests in mid-October. Three weeks later, they’ll start the November leg of the Nations Championship, facing England, Scotland and Wales on successive weekends, with a play-off match to follow in the four-game northern block.

The Wallabies will have 15 Tests after Mendoza before hosting the Rugby World Cup next year. Hence the thinking that the time to start seeing the preferred team is rapidly approaching.

It means Les Kiss and his coaching team are nearly at the end of their only opportunity to ‘take a look at a few guys’. Which is handy, because plenty of Australia fans on these pages and beyond are starting to wonder if the supposed first-choice 23-man match-day squad might start appearing soon.

With the seven aforementioned fixtures in 2026, the ANZAC Day Bledisloe Test, a full Rugby Championship plus a warm-up Test against Ireland next year, the Wallabies will have 15 Tests after Mendoza before hosting the Rugby World Cup next year. Hence the thinking that the time to start seeing the preferred team is rapidly approaching.

So the question is valid now. Who is in the first-choice team? And how far does the depth chart run in each position, little more than 12 months out from a home RWC?

Certainly, some positions run deeper than others.

Front-row stocks look good, with at least three options for each jersey. Isaac Kailea’s return in Argentina was timely for the loosehead stocks and there are still guys like Tom Robertson and Blake Schoupp on the injured list. And that’s before we consider where – or if – James Slipper fits into the equation.

Hooker looks similarly healthy, with Matt Faessler currently outside the squad, while at tighthead, the arrival of Massimo de Lutiis is equally well-timed. The most important piece of that puzzle will be the ongoing fitness of Taniela Tupou over the next 12 months.

At lock, Josh Canham has rocketed up the pecking order in just five starts this year, having played only two Tests beforehand. His combination with both Williams and Salakaia-Loto has helped nearly everyone forget that Nick Frost is yet to feature in 2026.

Did Kiss just give a glimpse of the best Wallabies back-row going forward, running Tom Hooper, Fraser McReight and Rob Valetini together in San Salvador? Plenty of people have been calling for it for some time and on the evidence of one showing, it already seems a difficult point to argue. There might only be one hurdle preventing that trio’s confirmation.

The responsibility is massive, but I don’t want it to be a weight…I want it to be something that inspires whoever is the captain.

“I named a captain, that’s Harry [Wilson], and obviously when I don’t pick him there’s another captain that steps up,” Kiss said last week when naming the team for the first Pumas Test without Wilson in it.

“But you know, Harry’s the man who is in, the man that I will back. The characteristics that he’s shown in that jersey; he shows his emotion, his footy smarts, he’s a great footy player who has the respect of the players, works his bollocks off every time he’s on the pitch.”

If that looks like a rolled-gold endorsement from the coach, Kiss did keep going with this answer.

“The responsibility of [the captaincy] is massive, but I don’t want it to be a weight,” Kiss said, in a way that feels contradictory to Wilson being “the man that I will back”.

“I want it to be something that inspires whoever is the captain, and someone who’s been through the mill and doing the job is probably the first person I’ll look to, as we get into ’27,” the coach said.

So, in summary, Kiss will back Wilson to be the Wallabies captain. Unless he doesn’t pick him. Are we all clear now?

Whatever that all means, back-row has long been and remains a position of strength for Australia, particularly when guys like Carlo Tizzano and Charlie Cale really don’t appear to have an avenue to a starting berth. Nick Champion de Crespigny and Joe Brial both spent time in the Wallabies squad during the Nations Championship, too. It’s a nice problem to have.

The half-backs look both rock solid and particularly vulnerable. Despite not playing a minute together until July, Ryan Lonergan and Carter Gordon look like they’ve played 50 Tests together, and with comfortably another 50 Tests together still to come. Just nail them down now, right?

Well, yes, except that if one or both of them are hit by a bus, all the concerns come flooding back instantly.

Both seemingly have dependable understudies – Tate McDermott and Ben Donaldson – but the issue is the evident and possibly growing gap between them.

McDermott’s only real crime has been suffering a nasty hamstring injury on last year’s November tour. But his form and impact this year has seen lots of questions raised.

Donaldson had an excellent year for the Western Force but just hasn’t been able to replicate that coming off the Wallabies bench yet. And McDermott’s standing in the Australian scrum-half pecking order is now more than a bit curious.

He’s gone from being the preferred starting scrum-half through the 2023 RWC, to invaluable impact player off the bench in 2024 and especially against the British & Irish Lions last year, to now being viewed as bringing a fundamental disadvantage every time he comes on for Lonergan.

McDermott’s only real crime has been suffering a nasty hamstring injury on last year’s November tour. But his form and impact this year has seen lots of questions raised. I don’t think he’s in any danger of losing his place to Kalani Thomas at all, but it could be a different story when Teddy Wilson gets his inevitable chance and Henry Robertson is fit again. And that’s before Jake Gordon comes back into the equation.

Len Ikitau being back boosts the midfield scenario, so too the return to form of Hunter Paisami and emergence of Isaac Henry. If all can stay fit for the rest of this year and next, it will be intriguing to watch which way the cards fall over the next 12 months.

And is there still room in that midfield thinking for Suaalii? He replaced Henry in San Salvador but was named on the bench to cover back-three positions as well. It does feel like there is something of a re-tooling in progress with him. Indeed, Kiss spoke of him last week in similarly contradictory tones, still seeing him at 13, but clearly possessing the kind of utility value that would nicely slot into full-back or on the wing.

Which is a hot field in itself, with Tom Wright and Max Jorgensen seemingly locked in, Harry Potter doing most things well currently, and the likes of Dylan Pietsch, Filipo Daugunu and Jock Campbell waiting in the wings. And Mark Nawaqanitawase.

That doesn’t even include another couple of league converts, either. I’ll be honest, I think the bigger question for Zac Lomax this year and Angus Creighton next year is ‘if’ rather than ‘where’ they’ll fit in. Neither has a particularly strong case for inclusion right now.

Clearly, Kiss has some welcome but bloody difficult decisions coming his way in the coming months, and how he tackles them all will be intriguing.

The time for experimentation is clearly coming to an end, so you would think that preferred options will start appearing soon enough.

Well, at least Wallabies fans certainly hope so.