Twelve months after taking the field for Brothers in their Hospital Cup final, Harry Wilson is set to be announced as the Wallabies’ captain for their Rugby Championship clash against Argentina in Buenos Aires.
It’s a dramatic rise for the 24-year-old, who last year failed to catch the eye of Eddie Jones after years of floating in and out of the team under Dave Rennie.
But a combination of factors, including injuries, late arrivals, and tactical selections, has seen Wilson rocket to the top of the leadership tree for the Wallabies.
The No.8 will be the eighth person to captain the Wallabies in the past 15 Tests in an extraordinary run that says plenty about the instability of Australian rugby at present.
Wilson’s appointment will be confirmed on Friday morning when Joe Schmidt names his side to take on Los Pumas on Sunday morning (8am AEST).
Harry Wilson (c) will captain the Wallabies against Argentina in their third Rugby Championship fixture of the year in Buenos Aires. (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
Less than a fortnight ago Schmidt commented that the Reds back-rower would not have expected to have taken over the leadership duties early in the second half as the Wallabies dropped like flies at Perth’s Optus Stadium during their 30-12 loss to the Springboks.
“No disrespect to Harry, but it’s a little bit destabilising when you work your way through and you get to your fourth captain,” Schmidt said.
“Harry wouldn’t have had the expectation that he was going to be leading the side when we started the match.”
Wilson will have hardly believed it when he was asked to lead the Wallabies out as the men in gold attempt to end an eight-match losing streak in The Rugby Championship dating back to their horrible loss to the Springboks in Sydney in 2022.
After six different leaders under Jones during last year’s turbulent World Cup campaign, Schmidt commented that it would take him some time to work out who his preferred captain would be ahead of next year’s British and Irish Lions series.
“I’ve been impressed with some of them, but it’s superficial knowledge of them,” Schmidt commented at his first Wallabies squad announcement.
“I haven’t seen them under pressure. I haven’t seen them at training.
“I haven’t seen the way they lead, by the actions they deliver. Some of those things I just want to find out a bit about. I’ve leaned on Laurie [Fisher] a bit.
“Geoff (Parling) knows a few of them having been involved with the Wallabies before and Mike Cron, he’s a good thermometer; he gets a pretty good feel for the temperature around other players’ perceptions of someone you might perceive to be a leader.
“It’s one thing labelling a leader, it’s whether people are prepared to follow them and whether they have a real confidence in them, and the reliability of what they’re going to be delivering.
“There’s a lot of unknowns there and I’m just trying to work my way through it, and we’ll do so over the next four days.”
Joe Schmidt is expected to name a new captain. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Ultimately, Schmidt settled on Liam Wright for the first-up clash against Wales but the Reds back-rower led the Wallabies just once before picking up a bicep injury.
On Tuesday, halfback Tate McDermott, who is expected to once again feature against Los Pumas and captained the Wallabies once last year, said he wasn’t concerned by the constant changing of the guard.
“I think obviously the start of the year with Liam Wright and his injury was pretty upsetting for him, his first time in a jersey for quite a while,” McDermott said.
“But I think the way that Allan [Alaalatoa] and Slips [James Slipper] have handled themselves, obviously a couple of injuries here and there for them both, but they’re brilliant leaders and the boys respect them 100 per cent and will follow them into battle.
“I don’t think there’s a leadership issue with too many voices. I think it’s a pretty narrow leadership group as well. So they’re doing a good job.”