Why Wallabies fly-half ‘didn’t get on’ in crucial Brumbies win

ACT Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham has explained why Wallabies fly-half Tane Edmed didn’t take the field against the NSW Waratahs on Friday night, with Declan Meredith instead playing the full 80 minutes in the 21-14 win.

Edmed was an unused substitute in the season-defining triumph for the Canberrans, who have now booked their place in the Super Rugby Pacific playoffs, although their final position on the ladder will be determined next week.

The 25-year-old started for the Wallabies in their final Test of a mammoth 2025 season, lining up opposite Romain Ntamack in a 48-33 defeat to France. Coach Joe Schmidt named Edmed in the run-on side twice during the Autumn Nations Series, also starting against England.

But with the Wallabies wrapping up their international campaign against the French on November 23, fans didn’t have to wait long to see the nation’s best rugby players back in action at club level, with Super Rugby returning in mid-February.

Edmed made the move from the Waratahs to the Brumbies, setting up a battle with Meredith for the starting role, following the departure of Noah Lolesio for Japan. But Edmed has only started once all season, and has played just five minutes across the last two Brumbies games.

“We’ll make decisions there based on how the players on the field are going. I few see that they’re flagging, if there’s poor decisions out on the field, we normally look for a change; some fresh legs and a fresher brain,” Larkham explained.

“Klayton [Thorn] didn’t get on, Tane didn’t get on but Ryan [Lonergan] was looking sharp at the backend of the game, Declan was also looking sharp.

“Like I said at the start, there were a few inaccurate kicks but the decision-making was really where it needed to be so just didn’t want to upset the rhythm of the team out there on the field.”

With captain Ryan Lonergan and Meredith lining up in the halves, the Brumbies secured their spot in the knockout rounds with victory over the Tahs. Billy Pollard and Cadeyrn Neville crossed for a try each during the first half, before Allan Alaalatoa struck early in the second term.

It was 21-0 in favour of the Brumbies with about 30 to play, but both the possession and territory stats favoured the home side. The Waratahs did claw their way back later on with tries to Isaac Kailea and Max Jorgensen, setting up a grandstand finish.

Both teams tackled with at least 90 per cent accuracy, which proved key for the Brumbies during the business end of this thrilling contest. The Brumbies are fifth on the ladder with one match left, set to face Moana Pasifika in their final regular season match.

“I thought our reserves were really good in terms of energy but the accuracy… of our finishes, just far too ill-disciplined with some of their decisions, but their energy was outstanding when they came on the field,” Larkham told reporters in Sydney.

“I spoke about it in the press conference after the round seven game against the Waratahs that maybe the week was a little bit wrong, we pushed the boys a little bit too hard, knowing that we’re going into a bye… we wanted to get a bit of a peak in their conditioning.

“You look back on the season, there were a number of games that we should’ve won and maybe that Waratahs one in round seven was one of that we could have won; certainly the Reds game, the Drua game at home. There’s a number of games that could have put us in a different situation coming into this game.

“We’ve probably seen for the last two games now the training environment, the training attitude and the metrics that we’re picking up in training has been just about spot on.”

In what could come as a major boost to the Brumbies, backrower Charlie Cale is “tracking well” ahead of a potential return. Cale suffered a shoulder injury away to the Highlanders in round nine and has missed every match since.

The backrower had been in unbelievable form before that, scoring nine tries in six appearances to start the season. That included doubles against the Western Force, the Crusaders and the Queensland Reds.

“Trained with us this week. Had a couple of strength tests and was pretty good in those.

“It’ll be a decision that we make over the next couple of days.

“He would’ve done some training [on Friday] so we’ll se how he’s come out of that training, but like any rehab process, kind of gets ticket off every single day. We’ll see how he pulls up after training today and then we’ll assess him on Monday and make a decision then.”