Wallabies stars return for Bledisloe as Parling rejects ‘extreme’ Lions hot takes

Wallabies assistant coach and former British and Irish Lion Geoff Parling has rejected the “extreme” opinions of former teammates that Australia are too weak to challenge the Lions next year and that the famous touring side would be better playing South Africa instead. Parling’s response came as the Wallabies turned to proven performers for the first Bledisloe Cup clash at Accor Stadium. Fraser McReight, Hunter Paisami, Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, Noah Lolesio and Tom Wright are all set to come into the side after overcoming injury.

Veteran halfback Nic White, who scored a decisive 10 points from the bench in the last win against the All Blacks in Sydney in 2015, is also poised to start alongside Lolesio. After starting in Santa Fe, Ben Donaldson, Carlo Tizzano and Hamish Stewart will all drop out. Stocky hooker Brandon Paenga-Amosa is expected to be named on the bench for his first Test match since 2021.



Paenga-Amosa featured in 14 Tests for the Wallabies before moving to France in 2021, where he played three seasons for Montpellier. The 28-year-old recently returned and signed with the Western Force for 2025. Ahead of Schmidt officially naming his team on Thursday, Parling conceded that there was no way to “sugarcoat what happened” in Santa Fe, where the Wallabies were thumped by the record score of 67-27 .

“You can’t – jeez, it was a terrible scoreline,” Parling said. Brandon Paenga-Amosa carrying the ball against Argentina in 2020. Credit: Getty “But we have to get back up and get ready, because of the test that’s coming on Saturday.

If we dwell on that– we’ve got to take the learnings from it, obviously – but if you’re dwelling on it too long, we’re not going to turn it around; we’re not going to move forward.” Parling played 29 Tests for England before moving to Australia to play for the Melbourne Rebels in 2018. He later joined their coaching staff as a lineout guru, and, after working part-time with Dave Rennie’s Wallabies in 2020, Parling was recruited for a full-time role by Schmidt this year.

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