Why Joe Schmidt hasn’t made a call on who will captain the Wallabies

Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt is yet to make a decision on who will captain the side against Fiji and the British & Irish Lions, but several proven candidates were selected in the first squad of the year on Thursday.

Rugby Australia announced Schmidt’s 36-player Wallabies squad this week, with Crusaders fly-half James O’Connor missing out on selection. Brumbies winger Corey Toole and Force backrower Nick Champion de Crespigny were the only uncapped players selected.

Incumbent Wallabies skipper Harry Wilson was selected, with the Queensland Reds No. 8 taking over the leadership role during last year’s Rugby Championship. Wilson could very well retain that role, but another Wallaby has been linked with the captaincy in recent weeks.

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NSW Waratahs skipper Jake Gordon is reportedly among the frontrunners for the position, while former Wallabies captains Allan Alaalatoa, James Slipper, Tate McDermott, David Porecki and Will Skelton were also named in the squad to face Fiji on July 6.

With Gordon, Alaalatoa, Skelton and Max Jorgensen standing close by at a media opportunity in Sydney on Thursday afternoon, Schmidt explained why the selectors haven’t made a decision on the prestigious leadership position.

“It will be about getting the squad together first and foremost and checking full fitness. Some of the guys who led for us last year have got niggles or are coming back from injury and are only just back on deck,” Schmidt told reporters in Sydney.

“Do we want them to shoulder the responsibility of leadership or just focus on their own game and get as much of what they can deliver right in what they’re doing? Or do we want them to lead the team and slightly dilute their own focus on their own game.

“That’s the balance that we’ll even talk to them about to be honest, because it’s a small group of guys who’ve led the team in the past and we’ll talk to them about how best we take that forward over the next four Test matches really.”

AAP reported 10 days ago that Gordon “has emerged as the frontrunner” to lead the Wallabies in the highly anticipated three-Test series against the Lions. Gordon missed selection for the last Rugby World Cup but emerged as Australia’s first-choice No. 9 after a strong season in 2024.

Gordon has led the Waratahs at Super Rugby level for quite some time, including this seaon’s improved campaign under coach Dan McKellar. The halfback only played seven matches, starting them all, as injured plagued the Wallaby’s season.

At Test level under coach Schmidt, Gordon was a standout during the July internationals against the Welsh, backing up a solid 63-minute shift in Sydney with a Payer of the Match-calibre performance against the same side in Melbourne.

Gordon played four matches during The Rugby Championship and another three during the Spring Tour, with Tate McDermott and Nic White also in the squad. McDermott was strong during Super Rugby with the Reds but Gordon is the incumbent starting No. 9 for the side.

“Jake is one of the five guys who we rely on through the Super period as a leader, so he’s one of those guys who we’ll talk to,” Schmidt explained.

“One of the things Jake is conscious of is the competition for places and the guys in the squad who do compete for that, with Tate having had had a very good season… there are others like [Nic] Whitey.

“I think captain is an incredibly important leader and visibly he’s a leader but one of the strengths that started to develop last year, I felt, was the leadership within the team, across the team. Not just having one person as a hub for making decisions.

“Harry’s [Wilson] not going to decide if we take a shot at goal or Allan’s [Alaalatoa] not going to decide if we take a scrum or a lineout. If it’s Jeremy Williams calling the lineout, he’s going to say, ‘Jez, are we going to the lineout?’

“The leadership of the team is something that’s really pivotal to any high performance environment and something that will be uppermost in our minds once we get the team together.”