{"id":64455,"date":"2025-08-13T06:43:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T06:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/64455\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T06:43:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T06:43:09","slug":"wallabies-newcomer-big-horse-brings-no-nonsense-approach-to-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/64455\/","title":{"rendered":"Wallabies newcomer ‘Big Horse’ brings ‘no-nonsense’ approach to camp"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Wallabies have welcomed former All Black Aidan Ross<\/a> into their ranks, with Zane Nonggorr<\/a> likening the veteran loosehead prop to an extra coach for the side.<\/p>\n

Set to square off against the most formidable pack in world rugby when they face South Africa<\/a> in their Rugby Championship<\/a> clash in Johannesburg on Sunday (1 am AEST), coach Joe Schmidt has Ross poised to make his Wallabies debut.<\/p>\n

Schmidt will name his match-day squad late on Thursday night, Australian time, with James O\u2019Connor<\/a> set for a shock return at fly-half, playing his first Test since 2022.<\/p>\n

Born in Gosford, Ross moved to Tauranga on New Zealand\u2019s North Island when he was eight and went on to play 101 Super Rugby matches with the Chiefs.<\/p>\n

Lining up for his lone All Blacks<\/a> Test against Ireland<\/a> in 2022, he fulfilled World Rugby\u2019s three-year gap between Tests to switch allegiance, and the 29-year-old is now in the mix to wear a Wallabies jersey against the world champions.<\/p>\n

Whether he does or not this week, 10-cap Nonggorr said Ross had already proven an asset for the Australians.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Big Horse\u2019, he\u2019s a pretty no-nonsense kind of bloke, he gets about his work very diligently, and he\u2019s definitely pushing his name forward (for selection),\u201d 24-year-old Nonggorr said of his new Queensland Reds<\/a> teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s on task at all times, and if you drop your standards, he\u2019ll let you know.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he\u2019s also a very good coach for someone going against him, and he gave me some pointers when we were doing our training in Sydney, and I\u2019m very grateful for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a very no-nonsense kind of bloke and someone that you just love to have in the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cZonggorr said the Springboks were an aspirational pack that the Wallabies were using to model themselves on.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir depth and just their intent, that\u2019s something that we\u2019re hopefully building as a squad in the Wallabies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoys can come into the squad and you don\u2019t miss a beat, so that\u2019s something we\u2019re trying to build here, and I think we\u2019re building really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonggorr and fellow Wallaby Tom Hooper<\/a> both made their Test debut on Australia\u2019s last visit to the republic, taking on the Springboks in Pretoria in 2023.<\/p>\n

There are eight other current Wallabies players from that match, which was memorable for all the wrong reasons.<\/p>\n

Winger Marika Koroibete<\/a> dived over after just seven minutes, but an ill-disciplined display saw two Wallabies yellow-carded as the home side piled on 43 unanswered points, including a Kurt-Lee Arendse<\/a> hat-trick.<\/p>\n

Former Wallabies fly-half Carter Gordon<\/a> scored their second try after the siren.<\/p>\n

Hooper said it was special to continue his journey with Nonggorr, but hoped for a different outcome this time around.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely special to be back here together with \u2018Baby Bear\u2019 (Nonggorr),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a full-circle moment, back here in the exact same hotel, hopefully getting a different result on the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hooper said he felt much better prepared for his second Test on the high veldt.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m being honest, back then I was probably a boy,\u201d said Hooper, also 24.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying I\u2019m a full-grown man \u2013 I can\u2019t grow a beard like Zane can \u2013 but I\u2019ve definitely had a bit of professional footy under my belt and it helps, every bit of time in the saddle.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Wallabies have welcomed former All Black Aidan Ross into their ranks, with Zane Nonggorr likening the veteran…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-64455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64455","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=64455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}