Such is the magnitude of the challenge and occasion that Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt is set to ditch his no overseas-based players selection strategy for the blockbuster series against the touring British and Irish Lions.
While not picking talent from outside of Australia is not strictly a set-in-stone policy, Schmidt has made clear his preference to mostly overlook Wallabies stars playing offshore, or heading overseas.
But knowing he will need the best available players to compete with the Lions, Schmidt says the likes of Will Skelton, Pete Samu, Samu Kerevi, Marika Koroibete and others will all come under consideration for the three-Test showpiece.
“We haven’t made any hard-and-fast decisions, but we obviously used Will, Samu and Marika last year,” Schmidt said on Monday. “I’ve spoken about James [O’Connor]. Potentially there’s other guys like Pete Samu, who’s committed to coming back at some stage.
“Even the guys who are going like Tom Hooper and Langi Gleeson, I do think we’ll see them back playing for the Wallabies at some stage. And so we don’t want to discount anyone because, as [Lions coach] Andy [Farrell] has done, they’ve picked a form squad.
“We would love to pick a form squad. But, as I’ve always said, if there’s anything that we think is 50-50, it’s more difficult to absorb someone in from the outside the groups that play together already.”
Schmidt revealed the Wallabies selectors would pick a squad of up to 40 players before the first Test in Brisbane on 19 July.
Two-time World Cup-winning Australia great Tim Horan welcomed Schmidt’s open approach and said Bordeaux-based back-rower Samu, in particular, would be a valuable addition to the Australian squad.
“Samu’s been in outstanding form. I’ve watched his last couple of games and I thought he was a really big loss to Rugby Australia when he went to France,” Horan told AAP on Monday.
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“Just the way he plays the game, and there’s a block of four Test matches for the Wallabies – Fiji and then the three Lions Tests – where fans don’t care where the players come from. Fans go, ‘OK, I just want to see the best Wallaby team we can select out on the field.”
Schmidt declined to say if he was likely to pick his best 23-man squad for Australia’s first Test of the year against Fiji in Newcastle on 6 July. But he suggested his likely first-choice Wallabies would be rested from the Lions’ lead-up games against the Australian state franchises.
“We’d probably be very keen to safeguard what we perceive to be our [best] 23 or 24, 25 and then the rest of the squad for them to get the games to play against the Lions,” he said. “We don’t want to deprive someone of the opportunity of playing against the Lions if they’re not going to get the Test jersey.”