The Rugby Championship 2025 Preview: Wallabies To Build On Lions Experience
The Rugby Championship 2025 Preview: Wallabies To Build On Lions Experience
Australia enters the 2025 Rugby Championship rebuilding under Joe Schmidt, aiming to revive Wallabies pride with fresh talent and a bold, attacking style.
Australia enters the 2025 Rugby Championship at a critical juncture.
A proud rugby nation with a rich legacy, the Wallabies are in search of redemption after a challenging past decade.
Once champions of the Tri Nations and frequent contenders, Australia now faces a tough rebuilding phase.
With just one title since the rebrand in 2012, and inconsistency plaguing recent campaigns, the pressure is mounting on players and coaching staff alike to reestablish Australia’s position as a rugby superpower.
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But the Wallabies never lack talent—and rarely back down from a fight.
The squad boasts a dynamic mix of emerging young talent and experienced veterans. Their attacking DNA, built on quick ball movement and expansive play, is still intact, and when firing, few teams are as entertaining.
The question for 2025: Can they be clinical enough to turn flair into victories?
Home advantage will be crucial, and the Bledisloe Cup clashes against the All Blacks carry added weight.
Australia also holds historical dominance over Argentina, making those fixtures must-win if the Wallabies are to mount a serious challenge.
Expect fire, expect noise and expect a Wallabies side desperate to shift the narrative. This year's competition is more than just another tournament; it’s a chance to start rewriting their rugby story.
Head Coach: Joe Schmidt
International rugby’s greatest strategist, Joe Schmidt has taken on the mountainous task of rising rugby’s version of the Titanic.
At the point of securing their second Rugby World Cup title in 1999, and even as recently as making the final at the 2015 global tournament, Australian Rugby’s decline would’ve been unimaginable.
Yet, as he did with both Irish Rugby and the All Blacks, Schmidt already has begun to put in place processes that will set up Australian Rugby for the long term.
Why Australia Rugby's Joe Schmidt Is The Best Coach In Rugby
Star Player: Joseph Sua’ali’i
Before the comments begin to roll in around Australia’s other star players, namely Rob Valetini, Will Skelton, Max Jorgensen, Taniela Tupou and Angus Bell, Australian Rugby’s million-dollar man, Joseph Sua’ali’I, is the main player in this squad both now and for the future.
One of the most freakishly talented players in the game, the former NRL star hit the ground running in his return to Rugby Union.
Dominating England on debut as the Wallabies pulled off a major upset at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham last season, Sua’ali’I set the rugby universe alight.
Since then, Sua’ali’I has endured an injury-interrupted Super Rugby campaign and a mixed British and Irish Lions series in which he certainly improved each week.
Now set to face the Southern Hemisphere’s elite for the first time, Rugby Australia’s biggest investment will lay down a marker that he is the man to build around heading into the 2027 Rugby World Cup.
Biggest Strength: Power Plays
From set-pieces, no coach in professional rugby draws up plays that unpick defenses better than Joe Schmidt.
Front and center of these power plays saw Will Jordan break Irish hearts in the 2023 Rugby World Cup quarterfinal, as the All Blacks sliced through the usually rock-solid green defense.
Now possessing a squad stacked with power carriers and elite pace, Schmidt will hit the lab and, no doubt, find gaps in each of his opponents’ lines.
Biggest Weakness: Depth
Firmly in their infancy as a squad, the Wallabies are continually unearthing new talent that should be hitting their peak in two years’ time.
In the here and now, there is no doubt that they lack the depth of the other teams in this competition, in particular the All Blacks and Springboks.
Most glaringly, the injuries to their first two options at fly-half in Noah Lolesio and Tom Lynagh cast a major doubt about how the Wallabies will manage fixtures.
Calling up the relatively inexperienced duo of Tane Edmend and Ben Donaldson to link up with veteran James O’Connor offers Schmidt a unique opportunity to further extend his depth chart.
In short, the Wallabies likely are facing short-term pain for long-term gain in this department.
Elsewhere, the Wallabies are lacking out-and-out quality in the scrumhalf berth with Tate McDermott the clear future of the position, but as of yet, he has been unable to displace veterans Nic White and Jake Gordon for the starting role.
Such is the lack of depth in the position that 35-year-old White has postponed his retirement to travel with the Wallabies to South Africa.
Across the board, the Wallabies have quality front-line players, yet it is fair to say that if one scratches beneath the surface, they are only an injury or two away from struggling to field an elite team.
Tournament Prediction: Third Place
Coming in this year’s Championship battle-hardened on the back of a tough three-test series with the Lions, the Wallabies should hit the ground running.
Getting underway with the toughest assignment possible, away to world champions South Africa, can be viewed in two prisms.
First, nobody expects Australia to win, and as such, there is no pressure.
Conversely, two heavy defeats could expose that the Wallabies are further away from being a top-tier side than many believe.
Overall, the Wallabies have been trending in the right direction. We can see a real scenario where they sweep Los Pumas at home and split with the All Blacks, which overall would constitute a successful campaign.
The Story So Far
Australia’s pedigree in The Rugby Championship—and its Tri Nations predecessor—is storied but increasingly distant.
The Wallabies have lifted the combined competition’s trophy four times: three Tri Nations wins (2000, 2001, 2011) and just one Rugby Championship triumph (2015). Since then, they’ve struggled for consistency and have finished with the wooden spoon seven times.
Their all-time record stands at 139 matches, 56 wins, six draws and 77 losses, with a points differential of -581.
In The Rugby Championship era alone, they've won just 26 of 63 matches. Despite this, the Wallabies have maintained strong individual performances, with players such as Bernard Foley and Matt Giteau among the competition’s top scorers.
Notably, they’ve claimed the Puma Trophy 13 times and the Mandela Challenge Plate 13 times, too. But the Bledisloe Cup has proved elusive, with New Zealand dominating since 2003.
Still, Australia’s ability to produce match-winning talent remains unquestioned. Their golden generation may be behind them, but a new era is building, and 2025 could be the year the tide finally turns.
Australia Squad For The Rugby Championship
Forwards: Angus Bell, Nick Champion De Crespigny, Nick Frost, Langi Gleeson, Tom Hooper, Fraser McReight, Josh Nasser, Zane Nonggorr, Brandon Paenga-Amosa, Billy Pollard, Tom Robertson, Aidan Ross, Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, Will Skelton, James Slipper, Carlo Tizzano, Taniela Tupou, Rob Valetini, Jeremy Williams, Harry Wilson.
Backs: Ben Donaldson, Tane Edmed, Josh Flook, Len Ikitau, Max Jorgensen, Andrew Kellaway, Ryan Lonergan, Tate McDermott, James O’Connor, Hunter Paisami, Dylan Pietsch, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Corey Toole, Nic White, Tom Wright.
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