Despite being sent packing from last year’s World Cup by Wales and having a dreadful record in Sydney, the Wallabies are strong favourites against Warren Gatland’s men for Saturday’s international opener at Allianz Stadium.
Since defeating the All Blacks at Olympic Park in 2015 to claim The Rugby Championship, the Wallabies have claimed just one of their past 12 Tests in Sydney – a lone victory against Samoa in 2019.
During that wretched eight-year period, the Wallabies have fallen to Argentina, England, Ireland, Scotland, South Africa and New Zealand.
Despite that, as well as losing four of their past matches against Wales, including last September’s 40-6 Pool C World Cup clash in Lyon, Gatland’s men are $5.60 outsiders for Saturday’s opening Test at Allianz Stadium with the Wallabies heavy $1.18 favourites.
The unusual odds come after a concerning seven-match losing run for Gatland’s Welsh side since bowing out in last year’s quarter-finals, including a 41-13 defeat to South Africa late last month.
But recalled Wallabies livewire Tom Wright said they weren’t expecting anything but a competitive contest against Wales, who are looking for their first win against Australia Down Under since 1969.
“It’s a funny one,” Wright said.
“Most people might peer at the scoreline against South Africa and think, ‘oh, [we’re] heavy favourites this week or whatever that looks like for the gold jersey.’ But they play a brand of footy that is probably going to be really exciting.
“They move the ball a lot more than people are going to assume.
“South Africa were able to shut down a fair bit of their attack, but their intent was there to move the ball around. So, we’re assuming that that’s going to come as well.”
The Wallabies will play Wales for the first time since the 2023 World Cup. (Photo by Andrew Matthews/PA Images via Getty Images)
Wright wasn’t able to put a finger on why the Wallabies have struggled in Sydney, but the local-born Brumbies fullback said they needed to flip the script on their recent history in the Harbour City.
“It’s important for the team to make Sydney feel like a really big home game again,” he said.
“I know Brisbane in the past has felt like probably the biggest home game for the Wallabies team. But as I kid growing up here, being able to get to Wallabies games at the old Allianz, it’s all jazzed up now, but it’s like a real big opportunity to win back, or to create a little bit more of an atmosphere, for the Wallabies there.”
Add to the fact that the Wallabies, who have 12 uncapped players in their squad, have been together for less than a fortnight under Joe Schmidt’s new-look coaching group and the men in gold are under no illusions about how difficult bouncing back will be.
But unlike Eddie Jones’ desire to do away with convention and blow up the World Cup formula, Wright says Schmidt had been pragmatic and won’t try and flip the script overnight to try and get everyone up to speed as quickly as possible.
“The first thing Joe did was bring a group together and come in and say, ‘It’s not about him and reinventing the wheel within five minutes,’” Wright said on Tuesday.
“We’ve been together 10 days.
“Obviously, it’s an Australian-only group. There’s some pretty high-calibre players that are walk-ins in the past into the team, and rightly so, but they’re not included at the moment for us.
“There’s an awesome opportunity for guys in positions to step up into that arena, whether it’s guys that have been there or not. But Joe’s given that challenge to a few positions.
“They’re obviously up for grabs. A few of us are still waiting, obviously. But the opportunity to turn the tide – the Rugby World Cup was disappointing – is exciting.
“He’s brought coaching staff from here, there and everywhere, who have got respect from all their different angles; Laurie [Fisher] obviously being one of the GOATS of Australian coaching; Mike’s [Cron] come from [New Zealand], there’s [English-born] Geoff [Parling] from Melbourne and we’ve got the coaching staff there to give us everything we need as players.”
He added: “[Schmidt’s] definitely put a little bit of a roving licence in. A lot of emphasis on being able to link with our bigger guys, trying to play a little bit tighter, give ourselves a little bit more room on the edges.”
Tom Wright is likely to start for the Wallabies at fullback. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Despite only making his debut in 2020, Wright is one of the more experienced players in a squad desperately short of that.
The attacking ace, who enjoyed his best year in Super Rugby after being brutally axed by Jones ahead of last year’s Bledisloe series, is likely to be named at fullback on Thursday in a backline that includes Andrew Kellaway.
Wright put his strong form down to a refreshing balance in life, with the 26-year-old a new father.
“Everyone’s quick to ask about that but I probably didn’t change a whole lot apart from just the extra body in the house at home (Wright’s daughter Indi).
“You have to switch off. Trying to give her the puree at night – that’s a pretty hard part of my day. Coming through the door, drop the bag and, yeah, it’s pretty much the best part of the day – coming home…
“Nothing drastically changed physically or anything and it’s hard for me to judge (whether it is) my own career best form, but I feel confident nonetheless.”
As revealed on Sunday, Wright’s Brumbies teammate Len Ikitau isn’t expected to be fit for the match, with the outside centre wearing his tracksuit and sitting on the sidelines on Tuesday. It comes after a hamstring tweak last week.
Lukhan Salakaia-Loto is back in the mix for the Wallabies. (Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images)
Another expected to return is powerful forward Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, who is in line to make his return after a two-year absence following a short-stint at Northampton in England.
The 27-year-old, father of two, said he never thought his Wallabies career was finished.
“No, not at all,” said Salakaia-Loto, who is still without a home next year after being forced to move away from the Rebels.
“I knew that in that time of my career back in 2021, I needed a change.
“I’d spent a big part of all of my career up in Queensland and I got to the point where I needed a change and needed to do a bit of soul searching, and overseas was the place for that.
“I left knowing that I was going to come back at some stage. Probably not as quick as it happened, but I knew that if I had gone away and worked and chipped away on my craft, coming back, I’d be a better player for it.
“I knew that if I had done all the right things, I could put myself in the right spot to potentially be back here.”