LONG READ Lukhan Salakaia-Loto can be the Wallabies' heavyweight enforcer

“See you next year”. With those four little words, second-row Will Skelton bade a sad farewell to the remainder of his 2025-26 season. The big enforcer had limped off the field with a ruptured Achilles tendon after only half an hour of Stade Rochelais’ 26-15 loss to Bayonne on 28^th March, in round 20 of the Top 14. His Instagram post in the aftermath stopped short of exclaiming mon cœur est brisé, but it had the emotional wrench of a break-up.

“Season cut short. Thanks for all your messages [of support]. Always grateful, see you next year.”

The effects of his absence will be long-lasting and profound, and they will be global and international in nature, with ripples felt far beyond domestic competition in France.  All hopes new Australian supremo Les Kiss may have harboured of the 140kg behemoth anchoring the Wallaby scrum effort in 2026 vanished into the thin air of the Stade Jean-Dauger, as they were overrun by the strident march of the Pena Baiona.

Skelton will turn 34 in a couple of weeks, and will be 35 when the 2027 World Cup begins. A 12-month healing period will leave only the six matches in the 2027 Rugby Championship, and one warm-up fixture against Ireland nine days before the tournament starts for proof positive the big man’s rehab is real. If Kiss chooses to gamble with the chips he already has, rather than roll the dice on Skelton’s injury and availability woes, he could hardly be blamed.

Literally and figuratively, Skelton’s absence would leave a gaping hole in the Wallaby middle row. Joe Schmidt’s reluctance to pick the obvious combination of balletic lineout leaper Nick Frost and the maul-stopping La Rochelle leviathan right from the start of the first Test probably cost Australia a series win against the British and Irish Lions.

When the two were finally paired for the second and third Tests, both men looked to the manor born. They complemented one another perfectly, Frost winning lineout at will, and ranging far and wide in the open; Skelton blowing up mauls, clattering rucks and treading on the more sensitive toes in the Ireland-dominated forward pack fielded by Andy Farrell.

 

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The naturalness of that partnership is now threatened by a mixture of injury and exhaustion. The ex-Waratah giant was ruled out of November games against Ireland and France by an ankle knock, then suffered a calf injury in early January which sidelined him for another two months. In the 2024-2025 season he played 30 games and almost 1800 minutes of rugby, and at least one of those figures would have set the alarm bells ringing for France supremo Fabien Galthié, had Skelton been born French rather than merely plying his trade in the country.

“After 25 matches or 2,000 minutes played, the factors limiting a player’s performance and development are multiplied. This is a public health issue”, said Galthié ahead of the French tour of New Zealand in 2025. Thirty matches would surely qualify the big Aussie for a bit of prolonged R & R, with his feet up by the pool and a piña colada in hand.

If you think that’s bad, the case of Skelton’s brother-in-arms is even worse. Between 9^th November 2024 and 8^th November the following year, Frost crossed both of Galthié’s red lines in no uncertain terms, participating in 30 matches and 2276 minutes of top-flight rugby all over the world within a 12-month span.

The physical and mental exhaustion left an indelible mark on the 26-year-old lineout mainstay. Frost was kept on ice by the Brumbies for the opening rounds of Super Rugby Pacific but was still feeling the effects from the previous season.

“Anything that involved bending my knees [hurts],” he said. “So, sitting up, standing, I just really struggled, getting in and out of the car.

“At the start, I wasn’t as keen as I thought I’d be to get back out there … I wasn’t moving well at all. So that put a damper on enjoying rugby and enjoying the training, because I kind of sucked.

“It does add up after a while. It’s not the games. It’s honestly the training that eats away [at you].”

If that gives you a glimpse of the demands on an elite player, it also prompts a realisation of greater need for depth in all positions as those demands grow. Like Skelton for much of the Schmidt era, Lukhan Salakaia-Loto found himself unaccountably on the outer fringes of second-row selection. The Force hybrid Jeremy Williams was uppermost in Schmidt’s thoughts, while true enforcers such as Skelton and Salakaia-Loto languished in the selectorial shadows.

There is little doubt now, looking in the rear-view mirror, LSL would have made a better like-for-like replacement for Skelton in the Lions series and beyond it. On every occasion the Queenslander got an opportunity to make a statement against the tourists, he talked the talk and walked the walk; whether as co-captain of the AUNZ Invitational XV, or as part of the boiler-house in the First Nations and Pasifika side which came closest to toppling the Lions outside the Tests.

After the AUNZ defeat, none other than Wallaby head coach-elect Kiss singled out Salakaia-Loto as one of only two home forwards [along with Japan-based All Black Shannon Frizell] who troubled the tourists on the carry. In the aftermath of the narrow First Nations & Pasifika loss in Melbourne, ex-Wallaby skipper Michael Hooper wanted him to start for the decisive second Test four days later. This was powerful advocacy and Kiss will ignore it at his peril when he takes charge of all matters green-and-gold in July.

Why? The Queenslander has a freshness Frost and Skelton lack, with only 24 games and just under 1200 minutes under his belt over the last two seasons, up to and including SRP 2026 round 12. He possesses a physical presence at the point of contact none of the other second rows in can rival. Only New South Welshman Miles Amatosero might argue the point.

He is still motivated to play for his country. As he pointed out before the Lions series began, “I think anyone who tells you that they’re focused on just performing for their club is lying. Everyone wants to be a part of it, and you should be wanting to be a part of it.”

He has done his globetrotting due diligence, as a Queenslander leaving his comfort zone to try his luck at Northampton in England, and with the Rebels down in Melbourne.

“It was something I needed, but I didn’t realise I needed it until I left,” he said.

“I did a lot of growing up overseas, a lot of growing up in Melbourne. I’ve got two kids now. I’ve got a family of my own.

“There’s a lot of lessons you learn on and off the field when you leave the nest. That’s what it was for me.

“It’s like when you leave home and you don’t realise what your parents were telling you when you were young. It doesn’t make sense until reality faces you, and I think it’s been the best thing for me.”

Salakaia-Loto has a skillset very few home-based Australian locks can offer. It is he, not number eight Harry Wilson, who has carried for the most metres [364m to Wilson’s 326m] and made the most tackle busts [eight to Wilson’s one] in the current SRP season for the Reds, and those are unusual stats in the back row/second row ball-carrying balance.

He has won 15 own-ball lineouts and stolen four throws, fourth in the league. And there is no other second row who dominates in the tackle quite like LSL. He lies second in the tournament with 13 dominant hits, just behind Hurricane TK Howden, and is truly Skelton-like in the impact he makes upon opposing ball-carriers of all shapes and sizes.

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) April 24, 2026

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) April 24, 2026

Those are not small men, they are the two Crusaders second rows, Antonio Shalfoon and Jamie Hannah, who Salakaia-Loto is manhandling in the high tackle. When the ball remains above ground, the Australian is a king at the tackle and in the strip which so often derives from it.

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) April 24, 2026

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) April 24, 2026

If there is any Aussie on God’s green one who can mimic Skelton’s power at the maul, on both sides of the pill, it is the man from Ballymore.

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) April 24, 2026

The man getting ahead of the ball on the block, sealing all would-be disruptors away from the ball and creating a pathway to the try line for Fraser McReight? That would be Salakaia-Loto.

“See you next year.” Those were the pithy words with which Skelton said goodbye to remainder of his season. If the big man is really unlucky, they could also spell the end of his World Cup hopes and his career in the fabled green and gold jersey.

Skelton’s unfortunate recent run of injuries and Frost’s comments on his energy-depleted start to 2026 will have put Kiss on red alert. Squad depth is suddenly not an option, it is a bare necessity in what should be one of the strongest positions on the Wallaby roster. But one man’s misfortune could yet prove to be another’s opportunity, and stars could just be aligning for Lukhan Salakaia-Loto.