Wallabies squad: Winners and losers including selection of ‘desperate’ playmaker and absence of star with ‘unique skill-set’
James O'Connor is in the Wallabies squad but Will Skelton misses out.
Following the announcement of Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt’s 34-man squad for their upcoming Rugby Championship Tests against New Zealand, we select our winners and losers.
Schmidt has retained the bulk of the players who were involved in the Wallabies’ recent Tests with Argentina where they edged out Los Pumas in Townsville before suffering a narrow defeat in Sydney at the weekend.
The big talking point is the absence of Will Skelton, who is remaining with his French club La Rochelle for at least the first Bledisloe Cup Test while James O’Connor, who recently joined Prem outfit Leicester Tigers, has been included for both encounters with the All Blacks.
Australia‘s Rugby Championship campaign resumes with their first Bledisloe Cup clash at Eden Park in Auckland on September 27 before they meet again at Optus Stadium in Perth seven days later.
So without further ado, here are our winners and losers.
Winners
James O’Connor
The veteran utility back is one of Schmidt’s options at fly-half and has been included in the Wallabies squad despite his recent arrival at Leicester Tigers and with the Prem season set to start on the same weekend as the first Bledisloe Cup encounter.
O’Connor initially flew over to the UK to join his new club and arrived there on Tuesday but admitted that he was desperate to face the All Blacks and Schmidt eventually named the experienced playmaker in his group.
The 35-year-old has been at the forefront of the Wallabies’ revival in 2025 as he pulled the strings at fly-half when they claimed a shock 38-22 victory over the Springboks in Johannesburg and also impressed when coming off the bench in the matches against Los Pumas in Townsville and Sydney.
With his fellow fly-halves in the squad – Tom Lynagh and Tane Edmed – both being inexperienced playmakers, his experience should come in handy against New Zealand.
Jake Gordon
The Wallabies’ first choice scrum-half started the first two matches of their three-Test series against the British & Irish Lions but has been sidelined with a hamstring injury since the end of July, which has seen him miss the final clash with the Lions and the four subsequent Rugby Championship encounters against South Africa and Argentina.
The 32-year-old is highly rated by Schmidt and was in the running to captain the side ahead of the Lions series but the head coach eventually opted to continue with Harry Wilson in the leadership role.
Gordon’s absence prolonged the Test career of Nic White, who started the Wallabies’ last five Tests, and it will be interesting to see who Schmidt will choose as his starting scrum-half for the first Bledisloe Cup Test with Tate McDermott and Ryan Lonergan the other options for the position in the squad.
Return of players from injury
The Wallabies come into their opening Bledisloe Cup fixture at Eden Park sitting atop the Rugby Championship standings despite losing their last match of the tournament against Argentina in Sydney last weekend.
They were without the services of first choice players in Nick Frost, Len Ikitau and Lynagh, who were hampered by back, knee and hamstring injuries but all three have been declared fit and included in the squad for the upcoming Tests with the All Blacks.
The aforementioned trio’s return should boost the Wallabies as Frost and Ikitau have proven to be two of the team’s top performers in 2025 while Lynagh has grown in confidence as the chief playmaker since making his international debut last year.
Tane Edmed
With O’Connor and Lynagh included in Australia’s squad, there was place in the group for one more fly-half which meant Schmidt had to make a choice between Edmed and Ben Donaldson and he opted for the former.
Donaldson has spent most of the Rugby Championship on the sidelines due to injury while Edmed was the Wallabies’ first choice number 10 in that defeat against Los Pumas in Sydney at the weekend but hardly set the world alight during a 55-minute stint on the field.
He battled to get the Wallabies’ attack firing and when he was replaced by O’Connor the visitors were leading 25-7 at the time. O’Connor’s introduction led to improvement on attack from Australia and they eventually scored three tries in the game’s closing stages en route to a 28-26 defeat.
Despite that, Edmed has received another chance and will be keen to repay the faith which Schmidt has shown in him.
Losers
Will Skelton
The continued absence of the behemoth second-row is a massive setback for the Wallabies as he brings a unique skill-set to the team and their forward play improves substantially when he is on the field.
With La Rochelle set to face fellow Top 14 heavyweights Toulon in a crucial league encounter this weekend, it was always unlikely that the 33-year-old would be available for the selection for the matches against the All Blacks.
However, it was mentioned in the Wallabies’ squad announcement that he could be among two extra players added to the group for the second Bledisloe Cup Test in Perth on August 4 if they manage to beat the All Blacks at Eden Park on September 27.
That is a big “if”, however, as the men in black have not lost at Eden Park since 1994 and are currently on a 51-Test unbeaten run at the famous venue.
Ben Donaldson
As mentioned earlier, the 26-year-old playmaker has dropped down the fly-half pecking order and it appears as if his omission from the squad comes after Schmidt had to make a choice between him and Edmed to join O’Connor and Lynagh as the third number 10 in the group.
If truth be told, Donaldson’s non selection is another illustration of how unlucky he has been in the Wallabies set-up in recent month.
He impressed as a replacement for Lynagh during the final Test against the British & Irish Lions in Sydney last month and was set to be O’Connor’s back-up for the Rugby Championship opener against the Springboks in Johannesburg before being ruled out of that Test due to a thigh injury in training.
That injury kept him on the sidelines for both clashes against the Boks and the two matches with Argentina and his inactivity in recent weeks appears to have counted against him when Schmidt selected his latest squad.
Pete Samu
The experienced loose forward was in our winners section a few weeks ago ahead of the Argentina Tests but now finds himself on the other side of the spectrum as he has been omitted from the squad for the Bledisloe Cup fixtures.
That is somewhat surprising as Samu did not feature in the either of the Los Pumas Tests with the back-row of captain Wilson, Fraser McReight and Rob Valetini Schmidt’s preferred starting combination in Townsville and Sydney, while Carlo Tizzano provided cover off the bench on both occasions.
Samu is back in Australia with the Waratahs after playing a leading role for Bordeaux-Begles during their triumphant Investec Champions Cup campaign earlier this year.
At the age of 33 it appears that Father Time is catching up with him as apart from the aforementioned quartet, the likes of Nick Champion De Crespigny and Tom Hooper are the other loose forward options in the Wallabies squad and all those players are younger than Samu.
Josh Flook
The young Reds centre is in a similar situation to Samu as he too was deemed surplus to requirements by Schmidt after failing to crack the nod for the matchday squads in both Tests against Argentina.
Flook has been part of the Wallabies squad since the start of the Rugby Championship but also missed out on selection for the Tests against South Africa as Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and Ikitau were the starting midfield combination and Hunter Paisami replaced the latter when he did not feature in the second Test with Argentina due to injury.
Despite his omission, Flook is still young and at the age of 23 he is a good prospect who should return to Wallabies duty in the not too distant future.
Injured players
The Wallabies’ big casualty from their recent Tests against the Boks and Los Pumas was star full-back Tom Wright, who is set for a lengthy stint on the sidelines after rupturing the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee in the clash with the world champions in Cape Town last month.
That was a huge setback for Australia as Wright was one of their best players up to that point and he will be greatly missed for the rest of the Test campaign.
Of the other players, Noah Lolesio (concussion) and Charlie Cale (back) have been sidelined since the start of the Wallabies’ Test campaign, while Langi Gleeson (heel) and Dylan Pietsch (jaw) are still ruled out after sustaining their injuries in the win over the Boks in Johannesburg.
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