{"id":817075,"date":"2026-07-22T18:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T18:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/817075\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T18:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T18:28:16","slug":"wallabies-news-2026-josh-canham-profile-australia-lock-stars-in-nations-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/817075\/","title":{"rendered":"Wallabies news 2026: Josh Canham profile, Australia lock stars in Nations Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Josh Canham could have been excused for being a bit gun-shy when it came to Test rugby.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 202cm, 119kg lock made his Wallabies<\/a> debut off the bench against Argentina in Santa Fe two years ago.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Josh Canham celebrates the win with Ben Donaldson.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Once upon a time that would have been a good way to \u2018ease\u2019 a promising player into the international arena, compared to a clash with the All Blacks<\/a> or Springboks.<\/a><\/p>\n

Not any more, and Canham was one of many bewildered Australians as the Wallabies led 20-3 after half an hour before a disastrous 67-27 loss.<\/a><\/p>\n

Canham had to wait more than 13 months before his next Test – coming off the bench in a tense 19-15 win over Japan in Tokyo.<\/a><\/p>\n

But an impressive Super Rugby season with the Queensland Reds saw coach Joe Schmidt<\/a> finally let him off the leash for the Wallabies in July.<\/p>\n

Canham made his first Test start against Ireland and kept his spot in the second row for clashes with France and Italy.<\/p>\n

Now 25 and with sharper shoulders, he finished the Nations Championship<\/a> home series as the breakout Wallabies player, scoring an unprecedented hat-trick in Perth on Saturday.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cFirst lock to ever score three tries for the Wallabies,\u201d Morgan Turinui said on\u00a0Stan Sport\u2019s Between Two Posts.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe other stuff too \u2013 at lineout time, you\u2019re talking about workrate around the park. He\u2019s been good, he\u2019s blossomed. The\u00a0Reds\u00a0missed him when he wasn\u2019t there this year. Good to see him push through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turinui, Matt Burke and Sean Maloney all voted Canham as best on ground in the 57-10 demolition of the Azzurri.<\/p>\n

\u201cA good find. We had to find someone in that locking position,\u201d Burke said.<\/p>\n

Canham has not had a traditional rugby apprenticeship.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Josh Canham of the Wallabies runs the ball during the Nations Championship.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Born in Peoria, USA – a little-known city of 113,000 in central Illinois – Canham then grew up in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

He came through the Rebels academy system to make the Junior Wallabies, but his career didn\u2019t really take off until joining Les Kiss<\/a>\u2032 Reds last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is so much upside in what he offers as a hard, physical player with great lineout skills and being very coachable,\u201d now Wallabies coach Kiss said in January.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s ambitious and really wants to play at the highest level which is reflected in his appetite to work to improve his game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canham scored four tries in three July starts including that historic hat-trick.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool but definitely wouldn\u2019t be scoring any of those tries without the forward pack,\u201d Canham said.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally good team performance and I was lucky to get on the end of some good pick and goes. I wasn\u2019t really thinking about it, just my next job, but when they told me post-game, I was very surprised, didn\u2019t realise that no one\u2019s ever done it before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree metres, three tries, so very lucky there. Just\u00a0appreciative of the whole forward pack and the team tonight because it was a good team performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canham is now setting his sights on a long career in gold.<\/p>\n

Kiss will name his first squad on Thursday to prepare for a date with Japan in Osaka on August 8.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ve been in and around the squad for quite a while now, even though I haven\u2019t been playing, so I know the system pretty well. I think I\u2019ve been itching for a chance to wear the jersey, so now I\u2019ve got it, I want to do everything I can to stay in it,\u201d Canham said.<\/p>\n

Watch rugby internationals on Stan Sport.\u00a0Add the Stan Sport package<\/a>\u00a0to watch rugby live and on demand with no ad-breaks in play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Josh Canham could have been excused for being a bit gun-shy when it came to Test rugby. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-817075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817075","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=817075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}