New Wallabies coach Les Kiss will name his first squad on Thursday in Sydney, and the standout question is not whether Josh Canham makes the cut, but how far the giant lock has climbed in the space of a single home series.
Kiss inherits the side from Joe Schmidt after the Nations Championship and opens his tenure with a Test against Eddie Jones' Japan in Osaka. Canham, 202cm and 119kg, has forced his way to the front of the queue after finishing the July window as the breakout Wallaby, capping it with a hat-trick in the 57-10 demolition of Italy in Perth — the first time a Wallabies lock has scored three tries in a Test.
"It's pretty cool but definitely wouldn't be scoring any of those tries without the forward pack," Canham said after the match. "I wasn't really thinking about it, just my next job, but when they told me post-game, I was very surprised, didn't realise that no one's ever done it before."
Canham's path has been unusual. Born in Peoria, Illinois, he grew up in Melbourne, came through the Rebels academy and only found traction after joining Kiss's Reds last year. The new national coach was an early believer.
"There is so much upside in what he offers as a hard, physical player with great lineout skills and being very coachable," Kiss said in January. "He's ambitious and really wants to play at the highest level which is reflected in his appetite to work to improve his game."
The Stan Sport panel on Between Two Posts voted Canham best on ground against the Azzurri. "First lock to ever score three tries for the Wallabies," Morgan Turinui noted. "At lineout time, you're talking about workrate around the park. He's been good, he's blossomed. The Reds missed him when he wasn't there this year." Former fullback Matt Burke was blunter: "A good find. We had to find someone in that locking position."
Canham, for his part, is not treating selection as a formality. "I think I've been in and around the squad for quite a while now, even though I haven't been playing, so I know the system pretty well," he said. "I've been itching for a chance to wear the jersey, so now I've got it, I want to do everything I can to stay in it."
He is not the only one pressing a claim. Waratahs halfback Teddy Wilson — the 23-year-old son of former Wallabies captain David Wilson — is firmly in the mix after Nic White's retirement and Jake Gordon's Achilles tear thinned the No.9 stocks behind Ryan Lonergan and Tate McDermott. Wilson has just signed a one-year extension with NSW.
"This is home for me. I grew up supporting the Waratahs and always dreamed of pulling on the sky-blue jersey," Wilson said. "Every opportunity I get to wear the jersey, I don't take it for granted."
Injuries have muddied Kiss's first selection. Len Ikitau has had a minor ankle operation, opening the door for Reds centre Isaac Henry, while Hunter Paisami is nursing a knee issue. Playmaker Carter Gordon hasn't featured since a calf injury against Ireland on July 4, leaving Declan Meredith and Ben Donaldson as the likely fly-halves against Japan. Prop Taniela Tupou is expected to be available before returning to France for the Top 14 season, and Jordan Petaia remains in the conversation for a first recall since the 2023 World Cup.
