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.
Having played lock for the Lions on their victorious tour of Australia in 2013, Parling will be in the rival camp for the Lions next year, and he shot back at recent criticism that the Wallabies will be easy-beats . Tom Wright will be back for the Wallabies in Sydney. Credit: Getty Images In the wake of Australia’s loss in Argentina, former England halfback Ben Youngs derided the Wallabies on a podcast with another of Parling’s former teammates, Dan Cole, and said the Lions would be better off touring South Africa.
Former England fly-half Andy Goode agreed on a different podcast, and said the Wallabies are “shite”. “I think some people can get extreme off the back of certain results, which I understand. But I would just move on from there,” Parling said.
“Look, I know those blokes well. Maybe they’re just trying to get some more listeners. “I’ve played in a Lions series before.
I’m telling you, for me, my belief will be a competitive series. We know we’ve got work to do, but I think it will be a fantastic series. I know people are coming over already, booked to come to this beautiful country that’s Australia.
I think it’s going to be a great series.” Geoff Parling runs his eye over Wallabies training. Credit: Andrew Phan/Wallabies Media Parling said the review process from Santa Fe had been effective in outlining to players the origin of each mistake that contributed to the side’s extraordinary collapse in the last 50 minutes in which the Pumas scored 64-7 points.
But Parling also noted that “the scoreline in the first 20 probably flattered us slightly” and the Wallabies’ ability to arrest the damage in the second-half was a focal point. “The loss of momentum there, how we couldn’t wrestle it back, that’s hard to take,” Parling said. “What are you going to do to wrestle back that momentum? Because momentum is a big thing in sport, a massive thing.
” The Wallabies have attempted to focus, too, on the positives of a backward step (or three) in an otherwise steady process of incremental growth under Schmidt. Parling’s work, in particular, has been strong. Stats show the Wallabies have the best lineout in the Rugby Championship, and the best defensive lineout too.
“When a team first comes together, it’s very rare that, isn’t it? [That] it’s all upwards, upwards, upwards, very rare,” Parling said. “And if that happens, you have to feel like a team then, once it’s played well and it gets towards the top point, when it doesn’t go well, they don’t know what to do. So, as long as we learn from these experiences, I’m not saying Saturday was a good experience at all.
Of course I’m not. “But I’m saying that as long as we learn, reflect, we push on, we know what the fixes are. I think any team that’s trying to be good has those up-and-down moments.
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