Australia have plenty of talent in their ranks who could cause the Lions trouble during this year’s Lions series. Our rugby experts pick out five Wallabies set to light up this year’s Tests.
The Lions are stacked with the best players that Great Britain and Ireland has to offer but under Joe Schmidt, Australia have been quietly building a squad that is capable of beating anyone on their day. We pick out five men who have been in impressive form at club level and could have a defining say in this year’s British and Irish Lions series.
Carlo Tizzano
When Carlo Tizzano made the first start of his Super Rugby career (and only his second appearance overall) in Round 1 of the 2021 Super Rugby AU season, he was anointed as the successor to continue the legacy of the revered Michael Hooper in the Waratahs’ No. 7 jersey.
What we’ve learned since then, though, is Tizzano is completely his own man, lighting up Super Rugby with a ferocity and intensity not seen by an Australian forward in quite some time.
In the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific regular season he broke the record for the most tries scored by a forward in a single campaign in Super Rugby history, crossing the try line 13 times and surpassing some big names – Malcolm Marx, Folau Fainga’a, Codie Taylor, and Hoskins Sotutu – in the process.
Indeed, he was so effective at scoring tries only the Crusaders’ Macca Springer (1.4 in 471 minutes) averaged more per 80 minutes than Tizzano (1.2 in 891 minutes) among players to log at least 160 minutes in the regular season.
If the Wallabies are going to overcome the Lions and repeat their 2001 series victory, Tizzano’s workrate and willingness to take contact is going to be needed. During the Super Rugby regular season he was arguably the hardest worker, averaging 10.4 carries, 18.0 tackles and 30.2 ruck hits per game with his combined total of 58.6 a competition high.
He has put in some incredible single-game shifts too. Since his first start at the beginning of the 2021 campaign, Tizzano has made 10+ carries and 20+ tackles in six matches across Super Rugby competitions – the most of any player and one of only two to have managed it more than twice (Harry Wilson, 4).
The Wallabies have already been written off in many respects but with Tizzano in the team you can guarantee they won’t go down without a fight.
Tom Wright
Tom Wright will be looking to add to his recent impressive performances for the Wallabies when the British & Irish Lions come to visit. The ACT Brumbies flier is now embedded as the premier full-back in Australian rugby and he has another strong domestic rugby season under his belt after helping the Brumbies to the 2025 Super Rugby semi-finals.
The 2025 season has seen a role change for Wright, compared to previous campaigns in Brumbies and Wallabies attire, with the 27-year old unselfishly playing the supporting role more often than the leading one.
He finished the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific regular season with nine try assists, which is his most in a single regular season and as many as he made across the 2023 (6) and 2024 (3) campaigns combined. Indeed, only New Zealand duo Cam Roigard (11) and Cortez Ratima (11) made more try assists across the entire competition this year.
The evolution of Wright hasn’t coincided with a decline in his output, which will be welcome news to the Wallabies faithful. Wright finished the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific regular season well clear of any other player on metres gained, finishing with 1,075 metres for the campaign.
It was the only tally above 1,000m and nearly 200 metres more than second-ranked Mac Grealy (885). Consistency remains key to Wright’s impact in domestic competition and only twice did he finish a game with fewer than 50 metres gained in the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific regular season.
There are few greater challenges in Test rugby than a British & Irish Lions tour visiting your home shores, but recent experience – and individual brilliance – against European opposition means that Wright should be one to fear for the visitors. The ACT Brumbies full-back played in all four games of the Wallabies’ 2024 tour of Europe, finishing with incredible figures including four tries and one try assist, his most prolific spell in the green and gold.
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a player who will be familiar to many Lions fans. Aside from the memorable name, the 27-year-old spent the best part of three seasons plying his trade in England with Leicester between 2020 and 2023.
His time with the Tigers included a league title in 2021-22 – a first for nine years – with Potter playing a key role throughout a magical season. He featured in 22 games and racked up 1654 minutes of playing time – the joint most of any Tiger that season (level with Harry Wells).
He made a huge impact during his time on the pitch too, scoring seven tries. Only Nemani Nadolo (10) dotted down more often for the eventual champions, as England’s most successful team topped the league table and backed it up by winning the play-offs.
He has spent the last two seasons in Perth after joining the Western Force at the end 2022-23, where he has since caught the eye of the Australia coaching set up. Despite being eligible for England – the nation of his birth – Potter chose to represent the Wallabies, with the winger making a try-scoring Test debut against Scotland in November last year.
Since making his international bow, Potter has gone from strength to strength and was in spellbinding form during this Super Rugby Pacific season. He has been at the heart of the Force’s attacking efforts in 2025 and is one of just three players to hit a century of carries for the Perth outfit (112).
Overall, he was one of 34 players to make 100+ carries in the regular season of Super Rugby this year. Of those 34 players, Potter boasted the best gainline success rate (74%), while only Wallabies teammate Tom Wright (7.1) averaged more metres per carry than him (7.0).
He was one of the most elusive players during the league phase of this Super Rugby campaign. Of the 27 players to face 100+ tackles, only All Black Damien McKenzie (51%) boasted a higher tackle evasion rate than Potter (45%) whose overall tally of 47 defenders beaten was bettered only by Mckenzie (53) and Timoci Tavatavanawai (78). Additionally, only the Brumbies’ Corey Toole (22) made more line breaks in the regular season than the Force winger (20).
However, one underrated aspect of Potter’s game is his ability under the high ball. With the kicking battle between the Lions and Australia set to be an intriguing one, having a player as adept as Potter at chasing and, crucially, regathering kicks will be vital.
He claimed a competition-high five attacking kicks during the Super Rugby regular season and will look to dominate the skies once again during this year’s Lions series.
Noah Lolesio
Noah Lolesio has been learning from one of the all-time great Wallaby fly-halves in Stephen Larkham, with the 102-time capped Rugby World Cup winner – and 2001 Lions tour victor – in charge of the Brumbies for the last three Super Rugby Pacific campaigns. That influence has clearly paid off, as Lolesio has been an integral part of a Brumbies squad that’s picked up back-to-back third place league finishes over the last two years.
Lolesio is a fly-half who likes to run with the ball. Among No. 10s in this year’s Super Rugby regular season, only fellow Wallaby Ben Donaldson (68) made more carries than Lolesio’s 63. He knows how to gain the hard yards with the ball in hand too. Of the eight fly-halves to make 50+ carries, he was the only one to cross the gainline over two thirds of the time (73%).
Equally competent without the ball as well, Lolesio has completed the most tackles (275) and hit the most rucks (212) of any Super Rugby fly-half since the start of 2022. Only Harry McLaughlin-Phillips (88%) bettered Lolesio’s tackle success rate of 87% among fly-halves with at least 20 attempts in this year’s regular season.
That desire to get involved in the unglamorous breakdown work has translated to Test level. Since the start of last year, he’s hit over twice as many attacking rucks as any of his fly-half counterparts in the Lions squad (62). In fact, since his debut against the All Blacks in October 2020, only Ireland’s Jack Crowley (5.8) has hit more attacking rucks than Lolesio per 80 minutes among Tier 1 fly-halves (5.0, min.800 minutes).
Lions tours can often be decided by the place-kickers – just ask Kurtley Beale, whose two late penalty misses in 2013’s opener denied Australia a victory that could have set them on their way to winning a second consecutive series. Alternatively, you could ask Matt Burke, who made 7/7 against the Lions in the deciding Test in 2001 to clinch a famous Wallabies win.
Some of Lolesio’s better kicking displays in a Wallaby shirt have come against the constituent nations of the British and Irish Lions. He’s clocked up 99 points in 12 Tests against Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England, scoring 40 of 49 penalty and conversion attempts in the process.
That includes a tally of 14 in Andy Farrell’s most recent game as Ireland head coach, in Dublin last November. Lolesio succeeded from all five place-kick attempts that day as Australia came agonizingly close to a first win at the Aviva Stadium since 2013.
Fraser McReight
Thanks to standout contributions in both attack and defence, Fraser McReight emerged as the top-performing Wallaby in last year’s Autumn Nations Series, according to the data-driven Opta Index.
With ball in hand, the flanker evaded 30% of the tackles he faced last November, second only to Argentina’s Juan Martin Gonzalez among the 40 forwards who encountered 20 or more tackle attempts.
Defensively, he won six turnovers, more than any other player. Five of those came via jackals, two more than the next best player (Cortez Ratima), and three more than any other forward.
That figure owes much to how involved McReight is at the breakdown. His average of 14 defensive ruck hits per 80 minutes was the most of any player in the end-of-year series (min. 160 minutes played) and he was the only one to average over two effective involvements at the opposition breakdown per 80 minutes (2.7).
When he wasn’t stealing the ball at the breakdown, he was relentlessly bringing opponents crashing to the ground. Only three players bettered his tally of 58 tackles, including two Lions tourists in the form of Jac Morgan (64) and Maro Itoje (62). McReight’s tackle success rate stood at a remarkable 97%, better than any of the 13 other players to attempt at least 50.
McReight carried that stellar form straight into this year’s Super Rugby Pacific campaign. Prior to the play-offs, he ranked joint-sixth for tackles made (185, also Dalton Papali’i), with only two forwards winning more turnovers than his 18.
He proved an able distributor too; among forwards with 800+ minutes played, only All Blacks duo Ardie Savea (10.2) and Hoskins Sotutu (9.4) completed more passes than him per 80 minutes (8.1). In fact, Savea was also the only forward to assist more tries and line breaks combined (12) than McReight (10).
Given the depth of talent in this year’s Lions squad, the Wallabies will need to outwork their opponents at every turn to stand a chance at winning the series. McReight thrives in that regard though, and it’s his machine-like tenacity that truly sets him apart from the crowd.
Such is his stamina, that of the 234 Tier 1 players to feature for 400+ Test minutes since the start of 2024, it is McReight who has averaged the most combined carries, tackles and ruck hits per 80 minutes (64.0). Interestingly, he is just ahead of Lions back row Jac Morgan, who has the second highest average (62.1).
We will have to wait and see if McReight can outwork his British and Irish counterparts once again next month.
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Five Wallabies to Watch During the 2025 British & Irish Lions Series Opta Analyst.
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