As it was revealed that a First Nations and Pacific Island heritage Australian team will take on the British and Irish Lions instead of the defunct Melbourne Rebels next year, a clash is on the cards with the Wallabies set to play a warm-up Test the day after the Waratahs take on the famous travelling team.
For months Rugby Australia has been looking at scheduling a Wallabies Test ahead of the Lions series, with a clash against a Pacific side – Samoa, Tonga or, most likely, Fiji – at home in the works.
But squeezing that fixture in-between the end of Super Rugby and the Lions has been problematic, with the Lions to play their opening tour game against the Western Force on June 28 – one week after the Super Rugby Pacific final.
Now, it seems a clash is set to occur with Joe Schmidt’s side to take on one of their Pacific neighbours on July 6 – the day after the Waratahs host the Lions at Allianz Stadium – and a fortnight before the first Test against Andy Farrell’s men in Brisbane on July 19.
The clash will make for some interesting backroom meetings between Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh, Schmidt and the four Australian Super Rugby sides, including new Waratahs coach Dan McKellar, with nine NSW players, including front-rowers Angus Bell and Taniela Tupou as well as five backs, currently with the Wallabies on their Grand Slam tour.
Just how many Test players feature for their Super Rugby franchises against the Lions remains to be seen, with Schmidt expected to hold a training camp in the weeks leading up to the first Test.
The July 6 Test could even rule out most front-line Test players for the Lions’ clash against the Force on June 26 and Reds in Brisbane on July 2. The Brumbies, who take on the Lions on July 9, were always likely to be without their front-line internationals given the Canberra fixture is just 10 days out from the series-opening Test.
Waugh, who captained the Waratahs and Wallabies, told The Times he thought it important for players of national interest to take to the field for their provinces.
“We definitely want to be putting a lot of our players into the provincial games,” he said.
“We think it’s a really important piece, connecting with our community, having our Test players playing in some of the provincial games. Playing for your state or province is a special experience against a team like the Lions. We want to afford as many as we can that opportunity.”
Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh says he wants Australia’s Super Rugby sides as strong as possible to take on the Lions. But will a scheduled Wallabies Test scupper those plans? (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images for Rugby Australia)
The development comes as it was confirmed that the Lions would take on a First Nations and Pacific Island heritage team instead of the now defunct Melbourne Rebels.
The midweek match at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium will be held between the first and second Test on July 22.
It will be one of nine fixtures planned on the tour, which is expected to see 40,000 overseas tourists arrive for the series and have 500,000 people go through the turnstiles – a record attendance for a Lions series.
The tour game has been months in the planning after the Rebels were culled on May 30. Their sorry demise came after slipping into voluntary administration in late January, with debts totalling almost $23 million.
“We’re focused on a First Nations, Pacifica-style of game, which will be Australian-based players that have First Nations backgrounds or Pacifica backgrounds — ideally Australian-eligible players,” Waugh told The Times.
“We’ll really engage with that population in Melbourne as well as the real spectacle of the way they play the game.”
Just who features in the Test remains to been seen given the small percentage of First Nations players in Australian rugby.
Indeed, injured Wallaby Dylan Pietsch became just the 15th Indigenous Wallaby earlier this year.
Others who identify as having Indigenous heritage in Super Rugby Pacific include Andy Muirhead, Harrison Goddard, Triston Reilly, Connor Vest and Isaac Henry. Maurice Longbottom, the Australian Sevens star, could also be another left-field option, having played at halfback and fullback for Randwick during the Covid pandemic.
Dylan Pietsch (third left) designed the Wallabies’ jersey to take on the Lions and is the 15th First Nations person to play for Australia. (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
Kurtley Beale, who was named in Schmidt’s wider Wallabies squad ahead of the July Tests but suffered an Achilles injury in club rugby in late June, is another who could feature. Beale, 35, remains in contract negotiations with the Force about signing a one-year extension.
Conversations are set to ramp up with potential players to take to the field in the Anzac invitational Test at Adelaide Oval on July 12.
Rugby Australia is likely to turn to players who played for Australia A against England A over the weekend, while the governing body is expected to turn to ineligible All Blacks stars to make up the team, given France are touring New Zealand in July.
The exhibition opens up the possibility of some of Australia’s emerging stars playing alongside Brodie Retallick, Sam Cane and Aaron Smith, who are based in Japan.
Waugh has spent the past two weeks in the United Kingdom engaged in high-profile meetings, including last week’s World Rugby Council.
He’s also had a bird’s-eye view of the Wallabies’ stunning opening to their Grand Slam tour, having been at Twickenham and the Principality Stadium to watch his former side’s wins over England and Wales.
The strong start to the tour has not just provided Britain and Irish nations confidence next year’s Lions series will be competitive, it’s reignited the flame of rugby in Australia at a time when they are deep in conversations about the next broadcast deal.
Waugh said he was not just thrilled with the wins, but the manner of their performances.
“There’s a huge appreciation for rugby in Australia and I think that the level of expectation of our fans and our players hasn’t been met by the performances,” he said.
“Whilst people would love to believe, we haven’t given them a strong reason to believe. There was probably no one happier than I was at Twickenham, because you understand the amount of work that’s gone into resetting the game in Australia, across all elements, not just around your Wallaby environment, so to get a win like that at Twickenham, the home of rugby, in the fashion it was done, was amazing.
“It’s more about the way the team went about it as much as the actual result, which has actually reignited that desire, interest and rugby passion that we know is there. We just need to get that sustainable success to get it to become a little bit stickier.
“The athleticism and team cohesion that has come through is most pleasing. You throw caution to the wind, back our ability, back our skill set, and win a Test match.”
Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh (R) says he’s been focussed on ensuring the Wallabies’ success isn’t a “sugar hit”. (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
Although it’s hoped the Wallabies have turned the corner, Waugh, who was an RA board member when his former side made inroads during the 2021 Rugby Championship before stumbling over the next two years, including at the 2023 World Cup, said he was trying to ensure their new-found success was sustained.
“I’ve been focusing on fixing our backyard,” he said. “Culture is the difference. You can have the same athletes in a poor culture and get a very different result and you get a good culture and things can change and pivot pretty quickly.
“Obviously, the inclusion of [Joseph-Aukuso] Suaalii was welcomed. When you get world-class players into environments that often rubs off and elevates other players. Even on the plane across here everyone else was sleeping and he was up studying all the different calls and moves that he needed to adapt to. He’s injected a level of professionalism and expectation on performance and on personal performance that’s been welcomed.”
He added: “We’ve talked a lot around not having sugar-hits, but actually making sure that whatever we’re doing is sustainable for our system.
“We’re also very conscious that we’ve had a good win, but we’ve had good wins historically and then we drop away. So it’s about sustainable success, not just the sugar-hits of one-off wins. But without looking for the sugar-hits, wins like England and Wales matter, because they’re so infectious across our system.”
