The Wallabies are banking on a settled squad – and an extra week’s training – to guard against the same sluggish start to an international season that scuttled their chances of a Lions series win within the first 120 minutes of last year’s campaign.
Australia meet Ireland at a sold-out Allianz Stadium on Saturday, in the first of three Nations Championship Tests in July.
The Irish sit in third place in the international rankings, and almost half of their touring squad are players from powerhouse province Leinster, who played in the Champions Cup final last month and won the URC final over a Springbok-laden Bulls team nine days ago.
It is one of the sternest possible tests for the Wallabies, and they can ill-afford to repeat their slow start to the 2025 Test season. In a very rusty outing, Joe Schmidt’s men just squeaked home to beat Fiji in Newcastle, and then fell behind 24-7 to the Lions after 42 minutes of the opening Test in Brisbane.
The Wallabies surged back in the second half but still lost by eight points, and then a controversial Lions try in the last minute of the second Test ended the hosts’ chances of winning the series.
A third Test win was among a handful of good victories that followed, but in many, the Wallabies’ habit of starting slowly continued to be a problem. Routinely, Australia fell behind, and while sometimes the Wallabies overcame the deficit, at other times – including in a winnable Bledisloe Cup Test at Eden Park – the extra work proved too much.
“In Test match footy you have to start fast, and you have to be good for 80 minutes,” Wallabies star Max Jorgensen said.
“A couple of those games last year we weren’t, so that’s what we want to try and build: consistently good games where we start fast and where we’re sharp for the full 80 minutes.
“If you look at training this week and over the past week or so, it’s been really sharp, really good, so we’re looking ready for the first half.”
The Wallabies trained at an open session at North Sydney Oval on Saturday. It looked a settled squad, and apart from a handful of faces missing like Jake Gordon and Nick Frost, a majority of the side to meet Ireland will likely roll on from the team last year.
That cohesion, and an extra week’s training in Sydney that came as a result of no Australian teams making the Super Rugby semi-finals, has been identified by Schmidt as positive factors when it comes to starting strongly against Ireland.
“It’s been a very similar squad now for almost two or three years,” Jorgensen said. “There’s a couple of fresh faces, which is always nice, but we’re gelling really well now. We’ve played lots of games together, and it starts to click that little bit easier.
Though buoyed by big wins, the Wallabies’ campaign last year ended poorly, with no wins on the Spring Tour. They crashed to Ireland 46-19, and Jorgensen said there was no hiding behind the excuse of the side running out of petrol at the end of a big year.
“Everyone knows by the end of the season you’re not going to be where you were at the start, but that’s no excuse,” he said.
“We just needed to be better. We can’t go on a spring tour and lose four games. We really need to be better, and that’s what we’re striving for this year.”
Ireland are at that point of their season now, and many of their stars could also be potentially weary given they toured with the Lions and then began domestic seasons soon after.
But assistant coach and former Test skipper Paul O’Connell said many of the Lions stars had been given several months off, and fatigue wouldn’t be a factor.
“A lot of them started quite late. For some of the guys, their first game of the season was against New Zealand in November,” O’Connell said.
“There’s a few guys that have been injury-free all year. They’ll probably have a few more games under their belt than the others. But some guys have picked up knocks throughout the year, which isn’t ideal, but it gives them a little bit of a break.
“A physical break, but maybe it gives them a mental break as well, because that’s probably the big thing.
“From my impression of the lads since they’ve come in, the eagerness to work, the eagerness to train, the eagerness to do the work has been great.”
Iain Payten is a senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.
