Wallabies down to fourth-choice flyhalf with veteran O’Connor to start at Ellis Park

As if things weren’t stacked against the Wallabies enough, they will go into the 2025 Rugby Championship opener against the Springboks at Ellis Park with their fourth-choice flyhalf.

Veteran James O’Connor, once the golden boy of Australian Rugby, who never quite reached the heights his talent demanded, will lead the line.

O’Connor, who is 35, played the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific tournament out of Christchurch with the Crusaders, winning the title, but has yet to feature for the Wallabies this year.

He has been in the Wallaby group since the start of the series against the British & Irish Lions, but never cracked the playing squad in a series Australia lost 2-1.

Injuries to Noah Lolesio and Tom Lynagh, who both didn’t make the trip to South Africa, and third choice Ben Donaldson, who suffered an injury setback in training this week, have led to O’Connor’s recall. He last played a Test against Argentina in 2022, a 48-17 loss – a record defeat at the time.

After sitting out the Lions series, it means that O’Connor, who is shy of game time for the better part of two months, must play 80 minutes at altitude against the world champions at a venue where they tend to dominate.

Although O’Connor was always likely to feature at Ellis Park, Donaldson was also supposed to be part of the squad.

As a consequence of the late injury setback, Australia will go into the match with a 6-2 split between forwards and backs on the bench due to the lack of available flyhalves in the touring party.

“In the second-last play of the training, Donno (Donaldson) kicked the ball and pulled up short,” Wallaby coach Joe Schmidt told the media on Thursday.

“We don’t know what the extent of the injury is. We’ve only been back from training for about an hour. He will get a scan, though, so we’ll have a definitive picture because we need to know for next week as well whether we need more cover.

“At the same time, we’re still trying to probably work out what we do to best get that coverage. Nic White (scrumhalf) can maybe cover 10 and is astute enough to do so, Andrew Kellaway has the skill set to cover 10, but it does leave us a little bit light.  We know that Tate McDermott covers the wing well.

“We know we’ve got some versatility in our group, but I think that’s something that we’ve got to look at [in] the captain’s run and just see what best fits for us, because it’s all happened just in a very short space of time.”

Positive spin

While the Wallabies have no choice but to put a positive spin on the situation, it’s hardly ideal. O’Connor is a player with huge experience, but he is at the tail end of his Test career, which began as a precocious 18-year-old in 2008.

Schmidt’s troubles were compounded with confirmation that marauding loose forward Rob Valetini was not cleared to play after a calf muscle niggle.

Despite Valetini’s failure to be ready, Schmidt has a decent pack of forwards, spearheaded by the mammoth lock Will Skelton and dynamic prop Taniela Tupou.

The pair were forceful and influential in the 22-12 third Test victory over the Lions in Sydney and will have to produce even more intensity against the Boks for their side to stay in the battle at Ellis Park.

While Schmidt can take some comfort in the physicality of his pack, he will sleep uneasily regarding the back division for a challenge that will surpass that of the Lions at home.

After a brief retirement, the inclusion of the nuggety White looks to be a clever piece of coaching, especially if he is needed as an emergency flyhalf.

But Ellis Park remains an intimidating venue for all touring teams. The Wallabies last won in Doornfontein in 1963, and have lost six post-isolation Tests at Ellis Park by an average score of 35-17 since 1992.

Rassie to tweak Boks?

Now that Schmidt has named a 6-2 bench, will Bok coach Rassie Erasmus follow through with his suggestion that he might change his team based on the Wallabies’ selections?

On Monday, when Erasmus named his squad for the match, he opted for a traditional 5-3 split on the bench. But the Bok coach said that if Schmidt went for a 6-2 split, the Boks might bring RG Snyman on to the bench and cut one of the backs from the reserve bench.

Schmidt is experienced and canny enough, though, not to become too embroiled in Erasmus’ mind games.

“I’ve worked with Rassie and coached against him. I don’t really focus too much on that,” Schmidt said.

“We’ve got a group that we’ve built over the last year or so, from this time last year, where we got a couple of lessons from South Africa. We’d like to think that we’re building away and we’re a lot more focused on what we’re doing and what fits for us.

“So for us, it was literally a 5-3 split on the bench until the second-last play at training today. We’ve adjusted that to where we think it is at the moment.

“But again, at captain’s run tomorrow, we’ll make a final decision. Just because it wasn’t worth putting Ben into the group when we know that he’s not going to be available now for this weekend anyway.” DM

 Teams

South Africa: 15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Edwill van der Merwe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 André Esterhuizen, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Grant Williams, 8 Siya Kolisi (captain), 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit , 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Ox Nché.
Replacements: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 18 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 19 Franco Mostert, 20 Kwagga Smith, 21 Cobus Reinach, 22 Canan Moodie, 23 Damian Willemse.

Australia: 15 Tom Wright, 14 Max Jorgensen, 13 Joseph-Aukuso Sua’ali’i, 12 Len Ikitau, 11 Dylan Pietsch, 10 James O’Connor, 9 Nic White, 8 Harry Wilson (captain), 7 Fraser McReight, 6 Tom Hooper, 5 Will Skelton, 4 Nick Frost, 3 Taniela Tupou, 2 Billy Pollard, 1 James Slipper.
Replacements: 16 Brandon Paenga-Amosa, 17 Angus Bell, 18 Zane Nonggorr, 19 Jeremy Williams, 20 Langi Gleeson, 21 Nick Champion de Crespigny, 22 Tate McDermott, 23 Andrew Kellaway.