Wallabies team v Argentina: Winners and losers as Joe Schmidt recalls ‘raw-boned’ inspiration and drops ‘dose of the yips’ veteran
Wallabies boss Joe Schmidt has named his team for Townsville
Fresh from their excellent trip to South Africa, where they defeated the Springboks in Johannesburg and were unlucky to be beaten in Cape Town, Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies are preparing for the Rugby Championship Round Three match at home to Argentina.
It’s a massive game for the hosts. A year ago, they came into Round Three with zero points after two home losses to the Springboks. Now, though, they are running second, just a point behind leaders New Zealand in a delicately posed tournament where all four teams have one win each so far.
With two home matches next on their schedule against Los Pumas, Australia know the potential exists for them to challenge for a first Rugby Championship title since 2015. They have now confirmed their team for Townsville in the first of these encounters with the Argentinians. Here, we unpick their selection and name our winners and losers.
Winners
Tom Lynagh
The Test rookie’s reputation has exploded in recent months. Where he was viewed as a risk when named amid an injury crisis to start the series against the British and Irish Lions, he is now viewed as the logical pick at No.10 after missing the two-match trip to South Africa.
A head knock prematurely ended Lynagh’s involvement in the third Test against the Lions in Sydney on August 2, but he has now sufficiently recovered to retake the jersey from veteran James O’Connor.
It’s a tremendous vote of confidence in the 22-year-old. While O’Connor blew Australia’s chances in Cape Town with three missed late kicks, he was integral in their famous win the previous week in Johannesburg, but must settle for a bench spot with Lynagh fit and ready.
Lynagh’s ability to learn quickly was decisive. “I caught up with Tom during the week, we went through a few of the things that we are trying to build into our game, and he is pretty studious, so he knows how we are trying to play,” explained Schmidt.
“We have got him double checked, and we want to be as prudent with him as possible. He is very keen to play and will kick us off.”
Harry Wilson
The knock-on effect of Wilson missing out on the Round Two match in Cape Town was that the absence underlined his importance to the Wallabies in the Schmidt era.
He had been immense in preventing the team from panicking when under the pump in Johannesburg and facing a hammering, and the 25-year-old’s two-try contribution in the famous comeback that materialised was magnificent.
The knee injury that left him out of the rematch with South Africa has now mended, and his head coach sang his praises at Thursday’s team announcement media briefing, describing Wilson as a “raw-boned, big-engined” back-rower with inspiring leadership.
“Not that he talks a lot, but just that he gets involved and he is whole-hearted in what he does, so it’s great to have Harry back. That back-row with Bobby (Valetini), Harry and Fraser (McReight), that’s a combination that know each other pretty well and balance each other up pretty well.”
Carlo Tizzano
It’s now five weeks since the former Ealing Trailfinders signing fell off the face of the earth amid the toxic fallout from the Wallabies’ second Test loss to the Lions. We all know the yarn: Tizzano was accused of diving after getting obliterated at a Melbourne breakdown in the lead-up to the Hugo Keenan try that clinched the series for the tourists.
The 25-year-old was usually a regular social media user, but the intensity of the Lions controversy resulted in him going offline and also surrendering his place in the match day squad, even though he did travel to South Africa.
Schmidt explained at the time: “He has had a tough week and copped a lot of online abuse. What I will say in his defence is that just over 54gs of force went through his neck along with 2200 rads [radians] of rotational force, which is enough to cause serious injury, not to a rugby player who is as well conditioned as Carlo, but he is probably best left to rest.”
It’s been a long rest having watched the team from the stands in Johannesburg and Cape Town, but he is now back in the mix and ready to play off the bench in Townsville.
Tom Hooper
The Wallabies’ most improved player of the year award for 2025 has already been won by this greatly enhanced talent. So unsure was he of his place in the international pecking order that he agreed a club contract with English club Exeter for the 2025/26 Premiership season.
Hooper will arrive at Sandy Park with a much-changed outlook now that he has zipped through the gears in recent weeks to become a must-pick Test pick for Schmidt.
He was massively influential in Australia’s third Test win over the Lions, an upswing in form he continued in South Africa with two excellent blindside outings. Now he is poised to show his positional versatility as he has been picked at lock to accommodate the back row return of skipper Wilson.
The absence of Will Skelton would usually leave the Wallabies fearing the gaping hole left behind, but that won’t be the case on Saturday with Schmidt acknowledging Hooper has “really improved” from last year… “Tom has been great for us. He’s got a massive engine. He keeps going really well.” He certainly does, and selection for a fourth successive start is a just reward.
Losers
James O’Connor
It was quite the incredible comeback for the veteran in Johannesburg, playing his first Test since 2022 and being a vital influence in the Wallabies’ historic Ellis Park win. That sublime performance suggested Schmidt could well have gotten his selection wrong for the lost Lions series by placing faith in Lynagh and not even picking O’Connor in the squad.
However, what transpired in Cape Town seven days after Johannesburg didn’t reflect well on the 35-year-old. No team with ambitions of being a consistent Test-level force can afford to have an inconsistent goal kicker, and O’Connor’s dose of the yips off the kicking tee painfully wounded his team.
He missed the conversion that would have put the Wallabies ahead with seven minutes remaining and then couldn’t snatch a losing bonus point with two late attempts. This was what Damian McKenzie managed for the All Blacks in Buenos Aires, and it’s that point that has them on top of the table heading into Round Three.
O’Connor has now paid a price for his waywardness, dropping to the bench and seeing the No.10 jersey handed back to the fit-again Lynagh.
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Will Skelton
No one can argue that when he is on top of his game, he is a world-class wrecking ball. Just ask any of the Lions whom he antagonised last month in the vicious Sydney rain, where a weather stoppage was simply perfect to recharge his batteries mid-game.
A consistency in fitness, though, has always been this Superman’s kryptonite, and he was below par during Australia’s two-match trip to South Africa.
It said a lot that he didn’t feature much in the giddy reports about the Wallabies’ famous comeback win in Johannesburg, and with him now back in France with his club La Rochelle, Schmidt has a window to develop Australia’s play from being over-dependent on the giant.
It was this over-dependency that proved costly to the Wallabies in the second match against the Lions… Skelton wasn’t fit enough to keep the pace, and the series was lost with that defeat.
There is talk that Skelton could return to the squad for the Championship-ending matches against New Zealand, but he might have a greater fight for selection if these next two Saturdays see the Wallabies impressing with a lock partnership consisting of Hooper and Nick Frost.
James Slipper
The 36-year-old became the joint-third most capped Test rugby player of all time when he started against the Springboks on August 16 at Ellis Park, but he missed the return in Cape Town due to a concussion and is now also marked absent for the clash with Argentina in North Queensland.
It’s an old ruse from his days as Ireland coach for Wallabies boss Schmidt to put players up early in a match week for media duties just to muddy the selection waters and put people off the scent as to what his actual team is.
This was the case with Slipper last Monday, sent out to field media questions as if he was in the selection mix to face Los Pumas. Instead of earning his 149th cap, though, Slipper will be a bystander at Saturday’s Round Three match as Schmidt has stuck with the unheralded Tom Robertson.
Not since 2018 had Robertson started a Test match when chosen to face the Boks in Cape Town, but he was excellent. He has retained his starting place with Angus Bell again providing cover to leave Slipper wondering if the cap to take him ahead of the legendary Richie McCaw and into third place on his own on the all-time list will now materialise.
Harry Potter
Having played in England for several seasons with Leicester, you can imagine how proud the winger was to start for the Wallabies in two Tests against the Lions.
A hamstring cruelly cut short his Test involvement in Sydney, but he would have hoped he had enough credit in the bank to be able to come straight back into the line-up when fit again.
That hasn’t been the case, however. With Potter unavailable, Dylan Pietsch took over the No.11 jersey in Johannesburg and following his injury, Corey Toole was the next man up to fill the shirt in Cape Town.
The rookie could have crumbled, given his Test debut was happening away to the world champions, but he played like a veteran, scoring an excellent try and making such a great impression that he has now been retained in the starting line-up for Townsville, with the fit-again Potter nowhere to be seen.
