The Wallabies have been dealt some mixed news ahead of their final two Tests of the year, with mammoth lock Will Skelton to miss the games against Ireland and France but veteran playmaker James O’Connor to rejoin the squad.
Skelton, who helped turn the Lions series on its head and was part of their triumph at Ellis Park, flew to Dublin on Sunday to join the Wallabies after wrapping up his Top 14 commitments for the month.
But the 33-year-old was quickly back on a plane once it was determined that the ankle injury he suffered against Toulon over the weekend would rule him out of the upcoming Tests.
The loss of the European-based heavyweight forward means that of the Wallabies’ 15 Tests in 2025, Skelton will have only played a little more than four Tests with injury and club commitments denying Joe Schmidt one of his biggst and most important players.
O’Connor, who wore the No.10 jersey in the Wallabies’ famous win over the Springboks at Ellis Park in August, rejoins the squad after missing the past three Tests.
The Leicester Tigers playmaker could have joined the Wallabies last week in Udine ahead of their 26-19 defeat to Italy, but Schmidt decided against calling up the veteran No.10, believing that he would have enough quality in his squad to eke out the win.
Not only did the Wallabies lose, but new No.10 Carter Gordon, who was playing his first rugby match in 17 months and back in gold for the first time in two years after leaving the Gold Coast Titans, suffered some “quad tightness” after kicking from deep in his own half in the 55th minute.
That was enough to see Schmidt pull Gordon from the field, with the 24-year-old one of two playmakers in the squad.
On Monday, Gordon played down the severity of his injury.
“I came off with a little bit of a quad tightness, but it’s been feeling better each day, so we’ll rip into training this week and it should be all good,” Gordon told reporters in Dublin ahead of the Wallabies Test against world No.3 Ireland.
Carter Gordon says the Wallabies have played it safe with his return to play. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
With Ben Donaldson and Tom Lynagh falling down the Wallabies’ pecking order, Gordon was catapulted back into the squad for the tour despite having an injury-riddled year with the Titans in his one and only year in the NRL.
The brave playmaker, who experienced a roller-coaster maiden season with the Wallabies in 2023, was bedridden for weeks after having surgery to fix a fluid issue affecting his spine.
The injury setback meant Gordon only made his comeback late in the NRL season, where he made his debut in the final round of the season.
Despite barely playing a minute all year, Gordon was parachuted back into the Wallabies in time for the end-of-year tour after Rugby Australia paid $100,000 to get an early release from the Titans.
But his rapid return saw Gordon suffer another setback on the eve of the Japan Test in Tokyo last month.
As a way to lessen his load, Gordon didn’t kick for goals or take the kick restarts against Italy.
He also kicked off his left-foot on a couple of occasions against the Azzurri, before tweaking his quad when attempting a right-foot midfield bomb.
Gordon said he hoped to get back to full kicking duties soon, but admitted the Wallabies were conscious of not putting too much pressure on him physically.
“I think we’re just being on the safe side,” he said.
“Early in the week, we just made a decision that we were going to obviously offload some of that kicking, but ideally I get back into pretty much doing all of it.
“Obviously we’ve got to keep tabs on it, making sure I’m not doing too much but, yeah, ideally I get back to doing all the kicking.
“I definitely want to be that goal kicker, I mean it’s something I’ve been working on the last few years. I guess we’re lucky that we’ve got a few guys on the team who can take that if they need to.”
Given the leg issues, Schmidt could well play it safe and leave Gordon out against Andy Farrell’s Irish.
If he does, O’Connor will likely return to the matchday squad.
Gordon said that O’Connor’s return had already been welcomed.
“It’s always good to get an experienced player in,” he said.
“Obviously Rabsey’s [O’Connor] had a lot of experience across his time and he’s still got a bit of flair, as we saw a little bit this morning with our walkthroughs.
“Any time you get a chance to learn off those guys, you take that.”
After a long travel day on Sunday, the Wallabies had a lighter day on Monday before their ‘Test Match Tuesday’ training session.
Part of their Monday included reviewing their ugly loss against Italy, which was described by Morgan Turinui as the Wallabies’ worst performance under Schmidt.
“I think that Wallabies game was all the little inadequacies and inefficiencies came home to roost in that match,” he said on Stan Sport’s Between Two Posts.
“That was the poorest performance of the Joe Schmidt coaching era at the Wallabies. It’s the worst of this year, for sure.”
— Quilter Nations Series (@QuilterNations) November 8, 2025
Monty Ioane with the score in the corner to take Italy ahead and towards their victory over Australia in the #QuilterNS ????#Breitling #DefiningMoment @Breitling pic.twitter.com/m3AONdiHDQ
Prop Angus Bell, who scored a fine try in the first half to put the Wallabies in front, said Monday’s review made for difficult viewing but added that it was no different to any Test under Schmidt.
“We have those conversations even when we win,” said Bell, who also played down his own shoulder issue that forced him off at half-time.
“I just briefly remember after the third Lions test when we beat the Lions there were still hard conversations happening.
“It’s just being in a professional environment and being a team that holds high standards even after a really great game.
“Ellis Park, for example, there are still opportunities out there for us to even be better and put more pressure on and exert ourselves onto the other team to really get ahead and win those games convincingly.
“And, look, every game, win, loss or draw, there is going to be no game that is perfect.
“This week was tough, this morning was really tough, but as I said before, it’s about not taking it personally and just trying to get better. And as a group with how connected we are, we do that every week, week-in, week-out.”
Despite commentary surrounding the Wallabies’ tough campaign, Bell also shut down any talk that the Wallabies were running out of gas.
“100 per cent no, we definitely have enough petrol in the tank,” he said.
Christy Doranhttps://https://ift.tt/Gb3givD drafted back in as Wallabies cop Skelton hammer blow – but it’s not all bad news as Bell, Gordon play down injuries
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