Watch Australia A take on Japan XV this Saturday live and on-demand via Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\nFresh from a turbulent 18-month stint in rugby league, Gordon told reporters he was determined to impress in Wallabies camp ahead of next week’s Japan Test.<\/p>\n
“I think I was 22 when I last played for the Wallabies at the World Cup and just had one season there, so, yeah look, I felt like I left a bit on the table and that was eating away at me,” Gordon said.<\/p>\n
“So the opportunity to come back came up and yeah, very excited to be able to take it and get back on board.<\/p>\n
“I’m just taking it day by day at the moment. Obviously I’ve got a lot to work on, a lot to learn over the next few days.<\/p>\n
“Honestly I felt better out there\u00a0than I thought I was going to feel first session back,\u00a0so that’s good.\u00a0I had a little run with the Reds on Monday night,\u00a0so getting back into that team stuff is awesome.<\/p>\n
“You can see what the team is building\u00a0and from where it was to where it is now\u00a0in the short period it’s taken a big step forward.\u00a0So I’m definitely keen to be on board\u00a0and keep growing in that momentum.<\/p>\n
“I’ll keep learning off Joe and off Tane [Edmed] … if that chance comes [to play] then I’m stoked to be able to do it again.”<\/p>\n
Gordon is one of just two recognised flyhalves named in Joe Schmidt’s squad to tackle Japan, England, Italy, Ireland and France – though Ben Donaldson will also be in Japan with Australia A.<\/p>\n
Schmidt told reporters Donaldson was already locked into touring with Australia A before Gordon’s signing and said was “no point in delaying” the latter’s return with Tom Lynagh (injury) and James O’Connor unavailable. <\/p>\n
“We have Ben Donaldson up there \u2026 but Carter being the 10 in the squad, there’s a pretty good chance\u00a0that he may be involved. It just felt like the right time to get him in and kind of recalibrate him,” Schmidt said.<\/p>\n
“It’s given us a chance to have a few conversations with him, for him to match up with a couple\u00a0of the players and get an idea of how we try to shape our game.<\/p>\n
“What struck me about him when he was playing for the Rebels, he’s\u00a0certainly brave enough, he’s not going to hold back and he’s going to throw himself\u00a0straight in there, so I didn’t see any hesitation today whatsoever, albeit not on a full contact\u00a0day at all.”<\/p>\n
Ironically, Gordon’s return could come against the man that first blooded him in a Wallabies jersey – current Japan coach Eddie Jones.<\/p>\n
The former Australia coach debuted Gordon against South Africa in 2023 and selected him for five straight Tests before elevating Donaldson at his expense midway through the Wallabies’ World Cup campaign.<\/p>\n
“I actually learned a lot from Eddie, he’s a great coach and he doesn’t pick up the gigs he does without being such a good coach,” Gordon said when asked about his relationship with Jones.<\/p>\n
“I think [2023] was just a bit of a crazy year for everyone. He didn’t have much time with the squad, the squad didn’t have much time together, and we were kind of just thrown into there and expected to perform.<\/p>\n
“I think I learned a lot about myself in that time as a young kid coming through and they’re learnings that I’ll cherish forever and hold close.”<\/p>\n
The Wallabies take on Japan next Saturday (October 25) in Tokyo. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carter Gordon has broken the ice on his return to rugby union, citing “unfinished business” in Wallaby gold.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85,2500],"class_list":["post-219317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-wallabies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}