Len Ikitau has explained the reasoning behind his Wallabies omission from the team that was upset by Italy last weekend, the star centre citing "combinations" as to why he was left to twiddle his thumbs in the stands in Udine.
Ikitau, the recent John Eales Medal winner as Australia's best player for 2025, is set to return to the Wallabies midfield for Sunday morning's [AEDT] clash with Ireland in Dublin.
But he was sorely missed as Australia were beaten 26-19 by the Azzurri, a fifth defeat in six Tests, as the Wallabies again struggled to win the gainline and were dominated by their opponents at the breakdown.
There were reports that Ikitau, who last month completed his move to Exeter, had an agreement with the English club that he would not play the Italy game, but the midfielder instead put his omission down to the fact that Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt wanted to see more of Hunter Paisami and Joseph-Aukuso as a centre partnership.
"I think just with the combinations, I think Joseph and Hunter were going well," Ikitau told reporters in Dublin. "And obviously it was first week back in [camp], so I don't think Joe wanted me to play. [It] was obviously disappointing, but [after] the week of training and training this week, I should be up for selection."
While the push to grow Australia's midfield arsenal is an understandable endeavour, particularly with Rugby World Cup 2027 now under two years away, Schmidt's decision to start back-rower Tom Hooper, who also rejoined the squad from Exeter last week, against Italy would have appeared to have ignored the same policy the coach considered with Ikitau.
Schmidt has also bent his training rule, which sees players needing to have a week's reintroduction to Wallabies camp before they are available to play the following week, to accommodate Will Skelton for Bledisloe II.
Given World Rugby's regulation 9, which states that players must be released for Tests that fall inside the designated international window, the rumoured agreement with Exeter that Ikitau wouldn't play against Italy would be problematic on several fronts.
The decision to omit Ikitau in Udine then left Wallabies fans scratching their heads, given the need to arrest a worrying slide in form that began after Australia returned from South Africa.
An 86th-minute win over Argentina and a narrow triumph over Japan are all the Wallabies have to show since their remarkable triumph in Johannesburg, with last week's Test against Italy seen as the easiest assignment of their European tour, despite the fact the Azzurri had secured their first victory over Australia three years ago.
Watching on from the stands both in London and Udine, Ikitau has seen a couple of areas where a misfiring Wallabies backline can rediscover their best against Ireland this weekend.
"Just for us as a backline, I think we can do a better job of controlling where we want to play and then just making sure we're making opportunities to get the ball to an edge," Ikitau said.
"We've got some awesome wingers, who in space are pretty hard to tackle, so just making sure we're able to share the load in the forwards and then taking those opportunities."
A hallmark of Ikitau's game in recent times has been a willingness to get in around the ruck and help relieve some of the ball-carry workload on the Wallabies pack, who have struggled to breach the gainline in each of their three Tests on tour.
Teammate Hooper was second to Wallabies skipper Harry Wilson for carries on his return and topped the metres gained for Australia's forwards, making the decision to rest the equally in-form Ikitau all the more curious.
Speaking alongside Ikitau on Tuesday, Wallabies assistant coach and former All Blacks lock Tom Donnelly said Australia's breakdown fixes were relatively simple.
While Fraser McReight was again a constant threat at the defensive ruck, the Wallabies were repeatedly penalised at the at the tackle for holding on as they gave up 13 penalties in Udine.
"The last two games our ball's been really slow at the breakdown, so that's helped with us not creating space for our ball-carriers," Donnelly said. "We just have to try and create quicker ball, and we do that by our ball-carrier being really accurate in his detail, and then our speed to clean to identify threats and get rid of them.
"If we can get quicker ball, all of a sudden we'll be able to play with more space."
Donnelly meanwhile confirmed that veteran playmaker James O'Connor would be available for selection, despite a Wallabies press release suggesting the fly-half was in camp to help Australia "prepare" for their clash with Ireland.