Centres
13. Hunter Paisami
12. Jordie Barrett
Despite Beauden having external commitments to take on the Lions in 2025, his brother Jordie is expected to be more than available for the seismic clash. The centre recently surpassed the 50 cap mark, as the All Blacks took on South Africa in the Rugby Championship, and at just 26-years-old, is progressing far beyond his years.
We’ve picked Wallabies centre Hunter Paisami to sit outside of Barrett, under the assumption that Eddie Jones will utilise his services sporadically throughout the 2025 Lions Tour. Paisami seems to be behind the pecking order of Marika Korobiete and Samu Kerevi, as an MCL injury kept the Samoan-born centre out of action for an extended period.
Halfbacks
10. Noah Lolesio
9. Finlay Christie
Eddie Jones has gotten all the competitive fire he asked for out of Brumbies fly half Noah Lolesio, to the point of that the halfback shouted out the name of his positional rival Carter Gordon, after scoring a try against Gordon’s Melbourne Rebels. However, Lolesio remains vacated from the Wallabies squad, with Jones preferring Gordon and the veteran Quade Cooper.
Gordon will be withheld from this match, as saved for the following week when his Rebels battle against the Lions. In turn, Lolesio would likely slot in to this Trans-Tasman squad, with Cooper eyeing up the 2025 Lions Tour as his final run at 37-years-old, and All Blacks fly half Richie Mo’unga heading to Toshiba Brave Lupus in Japan. Jones would be hard pressed to let one of his scrum halves go to the invitational side at risk of injury, which narrows the scope back over to the All Blacks.
Aaron Smith will be joining Beauden Barrett on a long-term move to Japan, and TJ Perenara also seems content in his spot at Osaka’s Docomo Red Hurricanes. This leaves Scottish born Finlay Christie as the most viable contender to the number nine jersey, for the Australia-New Zealand invitational side.