Here are our key winners and losers from the Wallabies squad announcement for their upcoming end-of-year tour, which begins in Japan and ends in France with pitstops in England, Italy and Ireland along the way.<\/p>\n
Winners<\/p>\n
Carter Gordon<\/p>\n
After a fraught 2025 with injury to fly-halves, the capture of Gordon<\/a> from the NRL to union has rightly been hailed as a coup. His return apparently wasn\u2019t on the horizon, Reds (and 2026 Wallabies boss) Les Kiss revealing on Monday that the signing was \u201cabsolutely rapid, probably (the last) four or five days\u201d. It\u2019s a signing that will seriously boost the image of Rugby Australia. They were an organisation in dire straits when Gordon quit in 2024, another casualty of the calamitous Eddie Jones\/Hamish McLennan era<\/a>, but they are a business now coming back into fashion with Joe Schmidt conjuring some on-pitch miracles and a more robust administration in charge off-field. So coveted is Gordon that the fit-again Ben Donaldson was only deemed good enough for the Australia A squad.<\/p>\n Wallabies: Rugby Australia confirm return of \u2018quality player\u2019 after brief rugby league spell<\/a><\/p>\n Aidan Ross<\/p>\n Playing for the All Blacks is an amazing achievement. Except in the case of this prop, it is a feat marked with an asterisk. His only cap under Ian Foster came as a sub in the damaging mid-series defeat to Ireland in Dunedin in July 2022. Ross got a two-part run amounting to about 20 minutes in total but was binned for the decider, Karl Tu\u2019inukuafe earning a recall, that was that for the loosehead\u2019s blink and you missed it All Blacks career. 39 months later, the soon-to-be 30-year-old has now been unveiled as an uncapped Wallabies squad pick after last year\u2019s club switch from the Chiefs to the Reds<\/a> and is poised to become the fifth player to play for both the Wallabies and the All Blacks. It\u2019s quite the story, especially as he has taken the spot vacated by the legendary James Slipper, who retired from Test rugby on October 4.<\/p>\n Kalani Thomas<\/p>\n With the retired-unretired-retired Nic White soap opera<\/a> now concluded, it\u2019s time for the Wallabies to start building depth at scrum-half, and the 23-year-old Reds reserve is the immediate beneficiary. His full potential isn\u2019t clear \u2013 this is a player who has existed in the shadows at the Reds, where Tate McDermott has bossed the jersey. Just 11 of his 61 Super Rugby appearances have been as a starter, but with McDermott now hamstrung<\/a> and Reds boss Kiss set to take over the Wallabies next year, the wind is suddenly in Thomas\u2019 sails.<\/p>\n Hunter Paisami<\/p>\n There was a time when the 27-year-old midfielder was a regular Test-level starter for the Wallabies, but last year\u2019s acquisition from rugby league of Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and his flourishing partnership since then with Len Ikitau has squeezed Paisami out of the reckoning. His only look-in so far in 2025 was the deflating Rugby Championship loss to Argentina last month in Sydney, but with Ikitau unavailable for the opening two games of the tour following his club switch to Exeter, Paisami has another window to stake a better claim to a jersey, not only at centre but apparently as out-half cover if there is an emergency.<\/p>\n Wallabies: Carter Gordon rushed back into all-Australian-based tour squad that includes an ex-All Black<\/a><\/p>\n Losers<\/p>\n Tom Lynagh<\/p>\n It\u2019s been quite the dose of adversity in recent months for the son of the legendary Michael Lynagh. The rookie hit the jackpot with selection as the starting No.10 in all three matches against the British and Irish Lions. He has had a rotten run ever since the concussion suffered when illegally clattered by Dan Sheehan in Sydney, though, and it has now culminated in his tour squad omission. There was just a single appearance in the six-game Championship due to head and hamstring issues, and the Wallabies have now taken a long-term view with the 22-year-old by putting him on a programme to \u201callow him to recover to full fitness\u201d away from the tour.<\/p>\n Tom Hooper<\/p>\n The lock\/blindside has been the rising star of the Wallabies pack in 2025, shrugging off his status as a bit-part player on the fringes of the Schmidt set-up to become an integral part of the rejuvenation that has materialised in recent months. Starting the last seven Tests \u2013 the final match against the Lions and then all six Championship fixtures \u2013 was no mean feat for the 24-year-old, but his club switch to Exeter has now rendered him unavailable for selection until tour match No.3 in Italy. It\u2019s a downside of World Rugby regulation nine that the international player release window isn\u2019t wide enough to cover all Test matches. The question is, will Hooper\u2019s enforced absence push him back down the pecking order, or does he have enough credit in the bank with Schmidt to be an automatic pick when available again?<\/p>\n