{"id":15991,"date":"2025-07-10T23:48:54","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T03:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/sin-categoria\/oconnor-returns-to-the-wallabies-to-face-the-lions-rugby-at-its-best\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T23:48:54","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T03:48:54","slug":"oconnor-returns-to-the-wallabies-to-face-the-lions-rugby-at-its-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/rugby\/oconnor-returns-to-the-wallabies-to-face-the-lions-rugby-at-its-best\/","title":{"rendered":"O’Connor Returns to the Wallabies to Face the Lions: Rugby at its Best"},"content":{"rendered":"James O’Connor joins James Slipper to face the British and Irish Lions with the Wallabies for the second time. The veteran was called up to the Australian team by coach Joe Schmidt.\n\nO’Connor, 35, was the big addition to the 36-player list presented in Brisbane on Friday afternoon. Schmidt turned to the player with 64 international matches after Noah Lolesio was ruled out of the series with a neck injury.\n\nThe Queensland player started at fly-half in the final match of the 2013 Lions series, scoring a try before the tourists took the match and the series in the second half. He and prop James Slipper, Australia’s most-capped Wallaby, are the only survivors from 12 years ago.\n\nO’Connor joins Ben Donaldson and Tom Lynagh as Schmidt’s options at the opening, while there was also a call-up for the promising Reds second row, Josh Canham.\n\nSchmidt had rejected calls on Sunday to add an experienced playmaker to his team, insisting that the group at his disposal could do the job against the Lions. But the news of Lolesio’s injury on Tuesday clearly changed the New Zealander’s way of thinking, and O’Connor was chosen ahead of Tane Edmed, who trained with the Wallabies last week.\n\nO’Connor last played for the Wallabies under Dave Rennie in 2022.\n\nMeanwhile, Canham put in a striking effort in the Reds’ 52-12 defeat to the Lions last week to earn a place in the Wallabies squad. The former Melbourne Rebels lock gives Schmidt another lock option outside of Will Skelton, Nick Frost, Jeremy Williams and Tom Hooper.\n\nTaniela Tupou, for his part, has kept his place in the squad, while Dave Porecki was also named even though the hooker suffered a head knock in Australia’s 21-18 victory over Fiji last Sunday.\n\n

As Wallabies coaches, we have tried to balance continuity with form and freshness, but there were some very tight decisions.<\/p>Schmidt<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n

\"James
James O’Connor ha sido convocado a los Wallabies para la serie contra los Lions.\nChris Hyde\/Getty Image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n“We are aware of how special it is to play against the British and Irish Lions, so those selected in the squad will compete for the Test jerseys, while also trying to help others prepare. We need to improve our precision and cohesion with a very short time before the first Test here in eight days.”\n\n“We are excited about what is to come.”\n\nSchmidt will appear before the media on Friday afternoon.\n\n

WALLABIES’ TEMPLATE TO FACE THE BRITISH AND IRISH LIONS<\/h2>\n\n

Forwards:<\/h3>\n\n
  • Allan Alaalatoa<\/li>
  • Angus Bell<\/li>
  • Josh Canham<\/li>
  • Nick Champion De Crespigny<\/li>
  • Matt Faessler<\/li>
  • Nick Frost<\/li>
  • Langi Gleeson<\/li>
  • Tom Hooper<\/li>
  • Fraser McReight<\/li>
  • Zane Nonggorr<\/li>
  • Billy Pollard<\/li>
  • David Porecki<\/li>
  • Tom Robertson<\/li>
  • Will Skelton<\/li>
  • James Slipper<\/li>
  • Carlo Tizzano<\/li>
  • Taniela Tupou<\/li>
  • Rob Valetini<\/li>
  • Jeremy Williams<\/li>
  • Harry Wilson<\/li><\/ul>\n\n

    Defenses:<\/h3>\n\n
    • Filipo Daugunu<\/li>
    • Ben Donaldson<\/li>
    • Jake Gordon<\/li>
    • Len Ikitau<\/li>
    • Max Jorgensen<\/li>
    • Andrew Kellaway<\/li>
    • Tom Lynagh<\/li>
    • Tate McDermott<\/li>
    • James O’Connor<\/li>
    • Hunter Paisami<\/li>
    • Dylan Pietsch<\/li>
    • Harry Potter<\/li>
    • Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii<\/li>
    • Corey Toole<\/li>
    • Nic White<\/li>
    • Tom Wright<\/li><\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      James O’Connor joins James Slipper to face the British and Irish Lions with the Wallabies for the second time. The veteran was called up to the Australian team by coach Joe Schmidt. O’Connor, 35, was the big addition to the 36-player list presented in Brisbane on Friday afternoon. Schmidt turned to the player with 64 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[920,890,888,921],"class_list":{"0":"post-15991","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-james-oconnor","9":"tag-joe-schmidt","10":"tag-lions","11":"tag-wallabies"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}