Why Carter Gordon is once again knocking on the door to Australia's number 10

After the fresh green shoots of growth in the first half of the Rugby Championship came the drought of the final three matches. After the high point of Ellis Park at the start, the low of a Bledisloe Cup double wipeout at the end, Australia finished in negative equity with two wins and four losses, having already lost the series against the British and Irish Lions in July.

While there is near-universal agreement Kiwi head coach Joe Schmidt has restored a level of respect to the national side, and the Wallabies are no longer the laughing stock they were at the 2023 World Cup, consistency has remained elusive. Skipper Harry Wilson summed it up in just a few words on Stan Sport after the 14-28 defeat by the All Blacks in Perth: “We’re not here to be competitive, mate. We’re here to win.”

After that loss, ex-Wallaby 10 Quade Cooper hosted a discussion session on X. When asked about the man currently wearing the jersey, Tane Edmed, he observed tersely: “I don’t think he should be on a Test match pitch.” When pushed further, he added “Love to see [NRL departee] Carter Gordon back.”

Less than 24 hours later, he was rowing back on the stark clarity of his original comment.

“Just for the news outlets – it wasn’t a brutal swipe at Tane Edmed. I just don’t think he should be playing Test match rugby for Australia right now. If he’s the best we have in the most pivotal position in the game in all of Australia, tell me one top-tier country he could replace their top two 10s?”

The ex-Queensland wizard was quite right in his judgment, even if the tone could have been more sympathetic. You do not even need to look at the top-tier nations to put Edmed’s selection in perspective.

Look at the English Premiership. There are at least nine playmakers in the newly-minted Prem who would be ahead of Edmed in the pecking order at their respective clubs: Finn Russell [Bath], Marcus Smith [Quins], Fin Smith [Northampton], George Ford [Sale], Owen Farrell and Fergus Burke [both Saracens], Tom Jordan [Bristol] and Ross Byrne [Gloucester]. Not to mention James O’Connor, who will now link up again with ex-Wallaby lineout coach Geoff Parling at Leicester.

Former Wallabies who played with Stephen Larkham or David Knox or Quade Cooper, or in previous generations with Mark Ella and Michael Lynagh, will be shaking their heads ruefully at the situation behind the door to number 10 now. There is a latent instability in the Australian system in general and at the outside-half spot in particular, and that is why it comes as no surprise Gordon has been gratefully reabsorbed in the Australian system from the NRL’s Gold Coast Titans, and re-selected immediately for the end-of-year tour of Europe ahead of his new clubmate in Queensland, Tom Lynagh.

As Schmidt recently commented in a statement after the announcement of the Wallabies November squad: “We’ve taken a long-term view with Tom Lynagh, who is still just 22. He has had a few injury frustrations since the third Test against the Lions and will follow an individualised program, guided by Wallabies and Queensland staff, which will allow him to recover to full fitness.”

Schmidt loves consistency of selection, but outside-half has resembled one of those revolving doors at the front of big hotels since his tenure began.

Player	2024 starts	2025 starts
Noah Lolesio	11	1
Tom Lynagh	0	4
James O'Connor	0	3
Tane Edmed	0	2
Ben Donaldson	2	0

That is five different starters in 23 games, with the two lads most likely to succeed [Noah Lolesio and Gordon] leaving for Japan and the NRL respectively at a time when the once-in-a-lifetime prospect of a Lions series should have guaranteed they would stay in Australian rugby.

Reading between the lines, the loss of Gordon especially has hit Schmidt hard. He had seen the potential of the ex-Rebels 10 at first hand as New Zealand assistant in a narrow 23-20 defeat at the Forsyth-Barr Stadium two years ago.

“I spoke very briefly to Carter after the Dunedin Test [] when we were on opposite sides and I respectfully said to him ‘well played’. I thought he had a cracking first half and he was part of the pressure the Wallabies applied on that day. It was a Wallabies side that really got on top in that first half and Carter was part of that. There were glimpses of what he’s capable of.”

O’Connor was utilised strictly as a finisher off the bench and an off-field mentor to the young number 10s by Rob Penney’s Crusaders in Super Rugby Pacific, but he was much the most effective choice as a starter for Schmidt’s Australian national side later this year. Probably, Schmidt wanted him in the Wallabies setup to play the same role, but the 35-year-old veteran ended up starting three Tests instead, and starring in the 38-22 comeback victory at Ellis Park. Go figure.

The Wallaby supremo rushed to Edmed’s defence in the wake of the game in Perth, scraping some positives from the bottom of the barrel.

“He hadn’t had a lot of rugby, didn’t really play the back half of the Super Rugby season. So, to be a kid starting his second Test, he did really well.

“In his passing game, he’s brave. He squared up, carried a little bit, and I thought he tackled well. Across the board, I thought it was a really solid performance considering the quality of the opposition, the nature of the weather, and the number of variables that got chucked at him.”

The plain truth is Edmed was second choice at the Waratahs for most of the Super Rugby Pacific season behind Lawson Creighton, starting only five games. Edmed and Creighton may be usurped by young Jack Bowen in 2026, so it is not much of a background from which to step into the Test-match arena against the Springboks and All Blacks.

The most obvious fallibility has been in his kicking game. There is a deliberateness about his preparation and striking of the ball which may belong at NPC level, but not in the international game.

Looking up and taking a couple of steps in the direction you want to kick can be fatal in the Test arena. It also had the effect of cancelling an attacking opportunity with the cross-kick.

There is clear space to the corner with the last defender standing on a line with the far post, but the kick gives Felip Daugunu no chance to regather and goes straight into touch without the Queenslander laying a finger on it. There was another kick-off which went directly into touch, and the New South Welshman looked clumsy off his left foot, with another attacking kick going straight into waiting All Black hands.

Nic White was sitting in the booth along with the Wallaby coaches at Perth, and it was symbolic of the fact Schmidt’s offence is also very squarely based off the nine rather than the 10. That limits the scope for a young outside-half such as Edmed to learn the ropes and potentially, run the show.

As Cooper added on X: “We have such a talented team now but watching it I’m not super-clear on the system or shape we are playing. The system is non-existent which puts them [the Wallabies] in bad positions which creates chaos and chaos breeds uncertainty, and uncertainty equals bad decisions, and bad decisions result in turnovers, penalties etc.”

In his heyday, Cooper was very much the master of the Reds attack despite the presence of a great scrum-half inside him in Will Genia. When he called for the ball, he got it and he and his backline did something clever with it. The playmaking pathways for Edmed in Perth were not so clear.

The young 10 is limited to short passes to the forwards at first, and both sequences finish with passive contact taken on terms imposed by the defence. There is no advantage in numbers for the attack when play finally enters the wide 15-5m corridors and the space has already been eaten by the attacking shape by the time the backs are engaged. As per Cooper’s observation, bad decisions ultimately lead to penalties, and the Wallabies shipped 14 penalties on Saturday, to add to the 29 from rounds four and five.

Cooper was right to qualify his comments on Edmed so they would not be construed as criticism of a young player in over his head. At the same time, he was undoubtedly correct in his assessment Edmed does not yet have the skillset which would equip him for serious Test-match action.

Edmed is a symptom of the current state of Australian rugby and the uncertainty around who can grasp the playmaker’s jersey with an iron fist. The Wallabies are still awaiting a definitive knock on the door at number 10, and the call for Carter Gordon is coming around again. The right man may just have found his way home after all.