French feast on the menu for Wallabies

Is the great Antoine Dupont and his team coming to Australia? This masthead understands that France, Ireland and Italy will be the three nations bound for Australia next July, if and when the long-awaited Nations Cup gets off the ground next year.

Despite the urgings of World Rugby chair Brett Robinson for the Rugby Championship and Six Nations not to stuff it up, the Nations Cup still isn’t over the line as parties haggle over details.

But schedules appear to be largely in place, with France, Ireland in Italy heading south next July and the Wallabies facing England, Scotland and Wales up north in the ‘return’ legs in November, 2026.

The French are well known for not sending their top players south in the July window and may well continue that policy, but next year’s Test comes with a twist. If the French want a dry run for the Rugby World Cup in Australia in 2027, this is it. They mightn’t necessarily care about the Nations Cup, but sending Dupont and co would make sense from a Rugby World Cup planning point of view. At least, Rugby Australia can hope. The Ireland Test will sell itself but the French avec Dupont would be a blockbuster.

The hidden Giteau Law message

RA director of high performance Peter Horne set the cat among the pigeons with his casual, “Yeah, well we never liked you anyway” dismissal of the Giteau Law this week, which created more questions than answers. Will the Wallabies now start selecting en masse? Will this have an effect on Super Rugby Pacific, one of Rugby Australia’s own assets? Why did he single out Josh Kemeny as an example of who Joe Schmidt could pick?

As with all laws and guidelines, the implementation will be the most important aspect. That said, if you were a club owner or coach in Europe or Japan, the message would be coming through loud and clear: signing a less experienced Australian no longer comes with a guarantee they won’t be called up in July, August-September or November. And RA could trigger Regulation 9 to secure releases, or at least brandish the threat of going down that path.

Super Round returns

It will be confirmed on Monday that Super Round will return during the Anzac weekend next year, hosted at the impressive new stadium in Christchurch. For those thinking of making the trip, here’s the tip: that stadium is smack-bang in the middle of the city – easily within walking distance of central bars.

However, there is one question to be answered on Monday – does anyone miss out over Super Rugby due to the 11-team competition format? And if so, who is the unlucky loser? As for the Super Round format itself, the jury is still out on whether it has legs. The novelty factor will give it liftoff in Christchurch next year, but it’s still a bit of a hard sell with the Super Rugby Pacific teams so geographically dispersed.

The big clue in the Springboks selections

The Wallabies won’t have to wait long until they find out who Rassie Erasmus has picked for the Rugby Championship opener in Johannesburg next weekend – the Springboks are usually unveiled on Tuesday.

He has built up so much depth that it’s a fool’s game trying to second guess which way the Springboks will go across many positions, but the Wallabies will definitely be keeping an eye on the No.10. The Springboks have three options – Handre Pollard, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Manie Libbok – and they all bring something different.

They go to Pollard if they think it’ll be tight with goalkicking is important, and Libbok if the plan is all-out attack. Feinberg-Mngomezulu started both Tests in Australia last year and is something of a freak, but earlier this year Springboks attack coach Tony Brown told this masthead that Libbok reminded him of Carlos Spencer. Libbok’s speed would be a major threat.

JOC against the Boks

James O’Connor’s Wallabies return is surely closing in. He hasn’t played a Test since 2022 – a 48-17 drubbing in Argentina – but Joe Schmidt showed how he highly he values experience by picking Nic White in the third Test against the Lions.

O’Connor has now had a bit of time inside the Wallabies camp to get used to the game plan, and it would be a surprise not to see him feature against South Africa.

He perfected the “closer” role at the Crusaders this season, winning the big game against the Blues in round 10 courtesy of two late penalties, and his presence on the bench would give the Wallabies plenty of confidence if they are in touch with the world champions heading into the last quarter.

O’Connor has seen it all. Even the daunting Ellis Park arena wouldn’t faze him at this point of his career.

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