Rugby recruit Zac Lomax knows he has a long way to go to fulfil his dream of becoming a dual international and playing for the Wallabies at the 2027 World Cup.<\/p>\n
Should Lomax be announced in the Force’s side on Wednesday, he will make his debut in a stadium where he has never been a welcome visitor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lomax scored two tries for the Blues in their 18-6 win over the Queensland Maroons in the 2025 Origin opener, and kicked three crucial goals in NSW’s famous 2024 decider win, both at Lang Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His most recent match at Lang Park came in July last year, when he scored two tries as the underdog Eels upset eventual NRL premiers, Brisbane.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Looking ahead to potentially playing against Lomax in his Super Rugby Pacific debut, Reds hooker Matt Faessler said he did not expect the former league star to be daunted by Lang Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“He’s obviously a great talent in rugby league. It\u2019ll be interesting to see how he goes if he plays against us on the weekend,” Faessler said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m sure he\u2019s no stranger to a hostile [Lang Park] crowd. Good luck to him if he plays.”<\/p>\n
![\"Queensland](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2ba74fae638aab5e256b03be9edf5c2f.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Matt Faessler says he will be excited to see Zac Lomax play if he is picked to make his Force debut. (AAP: Jono Searle)<\/p>\n
Faessler has not played since the Reds’s round three victory over the Highlanders, sustaining a knee injury, which has ruled him out of the last four matches.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the 27-year-old international is available for selection again, giving coach Les Kiss a potential headache for the starting hooker role.<\/p>\n
Fellow Wallaby Josh Nasser has started the previous four matches, during which the Reds have won three and lost one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Reds are spoiled for choice when it comes to Wallabies in their squad, meaning no starting position is guaranteed.<\/p>\n
Speaking today, Faessler said he was excited to be over his injury setback and compete for the starting hooker role. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
“That’s the best thing about any high-performance environment, is you’re picked on merit and how the team’s performing,” he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The Reds sit fourth on the Super Ruby Pacific ladder with four wins from six matches played.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Matt](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/89491c82417ab59699b111998349c9f3.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Matt Faessler has missed the past four matches after injuring his knee against the Highlanders. (AAP: Darren England)<\/p>\n
After enjoying a four-match win streak, which included a maiden win in Fiji and a rare triumph in Canberra, the Reds came back down to Earth last weekend with a 52-14 defeat to the ladder-leading Hurricanes in Wellington.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By contrast, the Force have just one win from their six matches in 2026, but that does not tell the full story.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Only one of their five losses was by more than 10 points, with the Perth-based franchise showing they can test the competition’s top sides.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“They’ve got a heap of international players in their side. I think they’re definitely playing better than the scoreboard is sort of representing,” Faessler said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“By no means are we going half-cocked into this game.<\/p>\n
“We’re preparing as well as we can, and it’s really important for us as a team that we get super excited and we want to perform well in front of our own fans.”<\/p>\n
The Reds and Force will play on Saturday, with kick-off scheduled for 7:35pm AEDT. The NSW Waratahs are playing in New Zealand against the Chiefs on Saturday afternoon, while the ACT Brumbies have a bye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zac Lomax could get his first taste of rugby union at a venue where the Western Force recruit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,170700,12061,282555,760,2633,85,48013,11229,22332],"class_list":["post-576044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-matt-faessler","tag-queensland-reds","tag-reds-vs-force","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-union","tag-sports","tag-super-rugby-pacific","tag-western-force","tag-zac-lomax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576044","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=576044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}