Joe Schmidt has made his position clear on the selection of overseas players.
“We’ve always been consistent in the messaging around prioritising the players who are playing locally and the reasons for that,” Schmidt said last week when asked about his selection ideas surrounding the Wales series in July.
“I wouldn’t rule it (selecting overseas-based players) out completely but it’s not our priority.”
He has made these statements with the thinking that it would put his team in better stead for the British and Irish Lions series in 2025.
Cohesion, consistency of availability and a certain amount of control over those players appear to be the motives for his policy.
“Our priority is the home-based players,” Schmidt said.
However, as is evident from South Africa’s back-to-back World Cups, domestic selection is not necessarily a guaranteed play for success.
Whilst on the other hand France, Ireland, England, and New Zealand have all reaped the benefits of a domestic selection policy.
Whichever way you cut the cake; the fact remains some extremely talented Wallaby-eligible players are plying their trade abroad.
How they would fit into a Schmidt coached side as well as within the system he and his assistants plan to implement will be intriguing.
Will Skelton
The man who became the 87th Wallabies captain has both figuratively and physically large shoes to fill.
His unique size means he can do things which others can only dream of, like blowing up mauls single-handedly, anchoring a scrum, and providing assured gain line ball, all invaluable assets at test level.
Playing for La Rochelle in the French Top 14, the blunt force parts of the game: the set piece, tight carries, and rucking are his bread and butter.
At 203cm and 135kg Skelton is not suited to the speed of Super Rugby Pacific but is very much an ideal international level tighthead lock.
He adds grunt and weight to the Wallabies pack and could anchor their set piece, regardless of who the front row is.
His experience alone is not something to balk at.
The young locking stocks of Australia could learn a great deal from Skelton and an Izack Rodda, the unicorn athlete that Skelton is, means he could be an invaluable asset to Schmidt.
Marika Koroibete
It’s apparent Schmidt requires a few non-negotiable qualities of his players, one of those are work-rate.
Aside from almost unparalleled work-rate, Koroibete has speed and strength in spades, which has made him one of the best wingers in the game for the last couple of seasons.
Despite being on the older side for an outside back at 31, Koroibete still has a lot to offer the Wallabies and frankly the world of rugby.
Dylan Peitsch is chief among those who could step into the role of Kroiebete, few are tougher and can find the line as effectively as the young Waratah (26).
While he and other young wingers are exceptional talents, they perhaps don’t yet possess the ability of Koroibete in full flight.
The ‘Fijian bullet’ as he was aptly dubbed after making a 40m try saving cover tackle on world class finisher Makazole Mapimpi in Adelaide in 2022, can still augment a Joe Schmidt coached Wallabies side.
Bernard Foley
Young flyhalves have been the hottest topic in Australian rugby for the last two seasons, but the conversation has both had positive and negative spin around it.
Noah Lolesio, Carter Gordon, Ben Donaldson, Tom Lynagh, Tane Edmed and now Harry McLaughlin Phillips have all grabbed headlines at one point or another.
Foley wears the famous number No.10 on his back for the Kabuto Spears in Japan’s League One and he has been at the top of his game and the competition for several seasons.
While there is some scepticism about the transferability of form from Japan’s league to test-level, there is no refuting Foley has a complete game which could mix it at international level, especially off the kicking-tee.
He performed well for the Wallabies in 2022 during both the Rugby Championship and the Autumn series where the Wallabies came within a whisker of beating New Zealand, Ireland, and France.
Kurtley Beale may yet be a preferred blast-from-the-past because he can play 10, 12 and 15 and wouldn’t necessarily have to take the spot of one of the youngsters in a matchday squad, Foley’s speciality in the playmaker role may be viewed as wayfinder for two youngsters as they make the jersey their own.
Schmidt is as much about winning games as he is about building longevity and succession into the Wallabies system.
Brandon Paenga-Amosa
As far as tested Wallaby hookers go in Australia, the Wallabies have just one, Dave Porecki.
The 19 capped Wallaby is the most experienced campaigner for both club and country.
The next logical pick is Matt Faessler who is only in his third season as a Super Rugby Pacific hooker with the Queensland Reds who has five Wallabies caps to his name.
Paenga-Amosa has 14 Wallabies games to his name along with 55 games of Super and 56 games for French Top 14 club Montpellier.
His physical dimensions of 183cm and 117kgs bridges the gaps between a 180cm and 108kgs Porecki, a bulkier Jordan Uelese 189cm, 122kgs, and a young bull like Billy Pollard at 185cm, 103kgs.
Despite not being known for his lineout throwing, BPA has an all-round skillset which could challenge any of those more recent Wallaby hookers.
BPA has signed with the Western Force for 2025 and will return to Aussie shores after the European season’s end in June.
Should his services be called upon by Schmidt he could fill the void of experience in Australia’s hooking stocks.
BPA adds physicality, experience, and nous to stocks which frankly could use some help in all three aspects.
Scott Sio
Australia’s playing crop is overall very young domestically, the average age of the 2023 World Cup squad was 26.5 years old, considerably younger than those teams that went deep in the competition.
The propping stocks in Australia are no different, on one end you have the grizzly old bear James Slipper holding up the loosehead prop stocks almost singlehandedly with young gun Angus Bell sidelined again with a foot injury that has plagued for a couple years.
Behind the master and the heir apparent remains a rift, the Melbourne Rebels’ Matt Gibbon has showed promising but not perfect form.
The ACT Brumbies’ very own ‘brick sh*thouse’ Blake Schoupp loves to scrum and to get one over opposition tightheads.
The wildcard is the Queensland Reds’ Alex Hodgeman, who has played four tests for the All Blacks.
His all-round game is a cut above the peripheral players, and he’s indicated he is keen to represent the Wallabies.
However, all these options pale in comparison to the experience of the 32-year-old Sio.
The 69-test veteran has been plying his trade for the Exeter Chiefs in the English Premiership and has made 41 appearances for the club, 11 of those in the Championship Cup.
These games came after almost a decade long career at the Brumbies where he racked up 121 caps.
32 is a prime age for a prop, and the English Prem is not a place you go to rest on your laurels, 41 games over two years will have improved the Wallaby’s game considerably.
With questionable loosehead propping depth at home, recalling Sio would provide relief to a wounded roster as well as an experienced operator to stay calm when the ebb-and-flows of test rugby inevitably challenge the Wallabies in 2024.
