Wallabies assistant coach Laurie Fisher is liking the battle for spots as several remain wide open in his mind for the British & Irish Lions.
Fisher and the group have assembled in Sydney for the week before heading north to Newcastle ahead of next Sunday’s Test with Fiji.
Watch every match of the 2025 British & Irish Lions Tour live and on-demand via Stan Sport.
It’ll be the only match before the three-test series against the Lions, with a new squad announced for that series later next week.
Fisher and the Wallabies are keeping their focus internally in the build-up, picking up from their improved Spring Tour.
“Probably more than one or two,” he said on how many spots are still available for the first Test team.
“We've selected a squad and it'll be re-selected after the Fijian game. As much as you can, you sit down with a blank canvas and we'll have had guys training for a couple of weeks and had a game or played against the Lions for their provincial team so we’ll have a fair amount of information.
“There is competition all over the place. There's obviously favourites for positions and I don't need to go through those but I do think there's healthy competition.
“...We're building some real depth at Super level which will help what we're able to deliver at the Wallaby level.”
It starts on Saturday with five players in the squad named in the Western Force’s starting side to face the Lions at Optus Stadium.
“We've selected a squad of 36 but only 23 can play against Fiji,” Fisher explained. “So to be able to leave guys over there like Nic White, Nick Champion de Crespigny, Dylan Pietsch, Darcy Swain and Tom Robertson to get the Lions experience, for us to get more information about them and then for them to join our squad…that only gives us more information to make our selections more powerful.
“It's a huge opportunity for them to show what they're able to do against the side that we'll be competing against.”
Fisher has been involved in past Lions campaigns with the ACT Brumbies, but never at a national level.
Whilst he jokes there’s been several failed retirement attempts in-between Lions tours, it’s an honour he wasn’t taking lightly.
“It certainly will be a career highlight to be involved in our national team against the British and Irish Lions,” Fisher believes.
“There's World Cups, there's South Africa and New Zealand and every time you play them, but it's a massive highlight. I'm super excited to be part of the Wallaby environment.
“I'm super excited to try and play my part to make sure that defensively we're as good as we can be, attitudinally across the board we're as good as we can be and I work with the coaching staff and the players to make sure that they're tip-top mentally, physically, technically and tactically to make the best account of themselves.”
