Key events
Jack Snape sets the scene for today’s fixture, including speculation over the thrusting R360 start-up that is beginning to take shape.
R360, which promises a global series in non-traditional markets such as Dubai and Boston kicking off in the second half of next year, threatens to insert another divide into a sport where club contracts and the international rugby calendar are already at odds.
Rugby Australia is waiting for details, but has warned that players who sign with R360 will not be eligible for the Wallabies. It’s another potential blow for the national side, having only recently eased restrictions on selecting overseas-based players under Schmidt in a view to make the Wallabies as competitive as possible.
Preamble
Hello everybody and welcome to live coverage of Australia v New Zealand in round six of the 2025 Rugby Championship. Kick-off at Optus Stadium in Perth is scheduled for 5.45pm AWST (7.45pm AEST).
The Bledisloe Cup has been decided for another year, and the Rugby Championship looks destined to be retained by the Springboks, but there is still plenty to make the final Test of 2025 on Australian soil one worth tuning in for.
It has been a winter of positivity for the Wallabies under Joe Schmidt, but as spring blossoms it is still impossible to determine exactly what it all means. The team is clearly on an upward trajectory as it rebuilds from the low base of the 2023 World Cup debacle, but has still lost 12 of its past 19 internationals, and the 2025 record currently stands at four wins from nine matches.
Half those victories came in the dying seconds against lower ranked tourists – but then one of the others was a dominant victory against the British and Irish Lions, and another a history-making triumph in Johannesburg. I am not qualified to determine which of these data points are signal and which are noise.
Much of the nuts and bolts have appeared in good order: the set piece has operated effectively, Harry Wilson can be penciled in for a long stint as skipper, and the depth of talent is as strong as it has been in over a decade. Counterbalancing this is the high turnover of players – especially through injury, the inability to find a halfback partnership, and chronic disciplinary issues.
The dispassionate World Rugby rankings place Australia in seventh spot. On points, this ranks them pretty much halfway between Georgia, in eleventh, and leaders South Africa. If the Wallabies can’t ascend to at least sixth between now and the end of the upcoming European tour then the 2027 World Cup on home soil will become considerably more awkward.
A strong performance in Perth would provide a springboard for this northern hemisphere odyssey, while defeat could see each subsequent Test this year as a backs-to-the-wall grasp for ranking points.
I’ll be back with the line-ups shortly. If you want to get in touch this evening, the address is jonathan.howcroft.casual@theguardian.com.
