Wallabies squad: Rennie explains KB and Suli snubs, why Hoops is back but Slips still skips, and how Tahs won personal battles

Wallabies coach Dave Rennie has confirmed a 36-man squad for the five-Test upcoming with key calls made on some big name players.

Kurtley Beale has missed out after a long break recovering from injury, while the rugby career of NRL convert Suliasi Vunivalu has taken a huge hit with his omission, and will surely lead to more speculation that he’ll head back to rugby league.

Darcy Swain, who would have been suspended for three of the match, won’t tour while Harry Wilson misses out to young Tahs star Langhi Gleeson after Gleeson’s impressive Australia A tour. Rennie said Swain might be considered as an emergency player if required for the final two Tests.

Waratahs winger Mark Nawaqanitawase gets his first full squad appearance, as does Tahs flyhalf Ben Donaldson, who is keeping Tane Edmed out of the equation for now.

Rebels prop Sam Talaki is called up for his debut squad as well, with Pone Fa’amausili injured in the final game for Australia A against a Japan selection on Friday. Jock Campbell and Gleeson are the other uncapped players in the squad.

Michael Hooper has also been named to re-enter the environment for the first time since he left the team in Argentina citing mindset issues – but James Slipper retains the captaincy.

James Slipper talks Wallabies captaincy on The Roar Rugby Podcast

“It’s great news from our perspective. He’s really excited about travelling and playing,” said Rennie of Hooper.

“He’s done a lot of work over the last while, training with our Sydney based boys for the past couple of weeks.

“We want him to just focus on himself. A player like that, he’ll lead from the outside.”

Rennie made it clear the decision on the captaincy was his and the coaching staffs, and that when Hooper was told of the reasoning “he was very supportive of it.”

Rennie was asked if was the end of Hooper as Wallabies captain and replied: “no, I wouldn’t say that. Obviously Slips has taken over that role. He’s a good man and has a huge amount of respect in the group. Hoops will contribute to our leadership group. That’s very important.”

Head Coach Dave Rennie, Michael Hooper and James Slipper. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

Rennie has chosen two of his three allowed overseas-based players in the squad, with La Rochelle’s Will Skelton and Kubota Spears’ Bernard Foley called up. Skelton will miss the first and final Tests as they fall outside the international windows, while Foley will return to his Japanese club after the fourth match.

Ned Hanigan is named in his first national setup since 2020 after also impressing in Japan for Australia A, with Western Force front rower Tom Robertson re-joining the group after Angus Bell was ruled out for the rest of the international season.

The rise of Nawaqanitawase has been stunning and he showed his all-round excellence in Australia A’s final try of the tour, breaking the line, putting in a perfectly weighted kick, then backing up for a key role in the next phase to put Dylan Pietsch over.

In the same game, Vunivalu was benched at halftime having made two big defensive errors and failing to make much of an impact in attack.

“I thought [Nawaqanitawase ] was excellent in Japan,” said Rennie. “He’s got an excellent skill set, he’s a big man, his ability to beat people, his creative pass, his high ball, and even chasing kicks, he was all over the park, looking for work, getting a lot of touches, having a real impact on the game.

“He’s really grown in the last 12 months. We brought him into camp to give ourselves a bit of cover when he came back from Sevens so it’s nice to officially name him in our squad.”

Rennie said Vunivalu “had some nice touches but if we looked at the players who had the biggest impact and played the best on that Australia A tour , Tom Banks, Jock Campbell and Mark were the three standouts. In the end they’ve played better than Suli.”

Rennie said Beale gave him a tough call.

“We just want to make sure his body’s right back to where it needs to be. He’s close. He’s dropped lot of kilos, maybe one or two still to go. We think he needs to be absolutely sharp.

“He’s just had a baby boy, and so we want him to have a really good off-season, have a big Super Rugby tournament and then look for a place from there It will be good for him to get some decent footy under his belt next year.”

Rennie said Donaldson and Edmed both played well when given their opportunities in Japan.

“We just think Donno edged out Tane. He’s quick, got a smart kicking game. They played a lot off nine the As, as do the Waratahs. We had Donno in camp for four weeks and he really impressed us in that period.

“We want to see him boss things around a little more and looking forward to taking him away as part the group to accelerate that development.”

The squad will assemble in Sydney on Tuesday before embarking on the five-game tour on Wednesday.

Wallabies squad for the 2022 Spring Tour (age, team, Tests played)
Allan Alaalatoa (28, ACT Brumbies, 60 Tests)
Tom Banks (28, ACT Brumbies, 20 Tests)
Jock Campbell (27, Queensland Reds, uncapped)
Ben Donaldson (23, NSW Waratahs, uncapped)
Folau Fainga’a (27, ACT Brumbies, 33 Tests)
Lalakai Foketi (27, NSW Waratahs, 4 Tests)
Bernard Foley (32, Kubota Spears, 73 Tests)
Matt Gibbon (27, Melbourne Rebels, 2 Tests)
Nick Frost (23, ACT Brumbies, 5 Tests)
Langi Gleeson (21, NSW Waratahs, uncapped)
Jake Gordon (29, NSW Waratahs, 16 Tests)
Ned Hanigan (27, NSW Waratahs, 25 Tests)
Reece Hodge (28, Melbourne Rebels, 60 Tests)
Jed Holloway (29, NSW Waratahs, 6 Tests)
Michael Hooper (30, NSW Waratahs, 121 Tests)
Len Ikitau (24, ACT Brumbies, 21 Tests)
Andrew Kellaway (27, Melbourne Rebels, 18 Tests)
Noah Lolesio (22, ACT Brumbies, 14 Tests)
Lachlan Lonergan (23, ACT Brumbies, 6 Tests)
Tate McDermott (23, Queensland Reds, 18 Tests)
Fraser McReight (23, Queensland Reds, 8 Tests)
Mark Nawaqanitawase (22, NSW Waratahs, uncapped)
Cadeyrn Neville (33, ACT Brumbies, 3 Tests)
Hunter Paisami (24, Queensland Reds, 20 Tests)
Jordan Petaia (22, Queensland Reds, 22 Tests)
Matt Philip (28, Melbourne Rebels, 27 Tests)
David Porecki (29, NSW Waratahs, 7 Tests)
Tom Robertson (28, Western Force, 27 Tests)
Pete Samu (30, ACT Brumbies, 28 Tests)
Will Skelton (30, Stade Rochelais ,21 Tests)
James Slipper (c) (33, ACT Brumbies, 123 Tests)
Sam Talakai (31, Melbourne Rebels, uncapped)
Taniela Tupou (26, Queensland Reds, 43 Tests)
Rob Valetini (24, ACT Brumbies, 27 Tests)
Nic White (32, ACT Brumbies, 56 Tests)
Tom Wright (25, ACT Brumbies, 18 Tests)

2022 Spring Tour Fixtures
Wallabies v Scotland, Sunday 30 October, 3:30am AEDT at BT Murrayfield, Edinburgh
Wallabies v France, Sunday 6 November, 7:00am AEDT at Stade de France, Paris
Wallabies v Italy, Sunday 13 November, 12:00am AEDT at Stadio Artemio Franchi, Florence
Wallabies v Ireland, Sunday 20 November, 7:00am AEDT at Aviva Stadium, Dublin
Wallabies v Wales, Sunday 27 November, 2:15am AEDT at Principality Stadium, Cardiff