Wallabies fullback Tom Wright is confident the attacking shift across World Rugby will play into the Australians’ hands as they prepare for their Nations Championship opener against Ireland next week.
Wright and the Wallabies enter camp on Wednesday after a brief training hub following their early exits from Super Rugby Pacific.
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It comes off the back of the Hurricanes’ blitz of the competition, scoring 50+ points in all three of their finals wins, including over Wright’s ACT Brumbies.
The mountain of points being scored has been a noticeable trend in previous weeks, with Top 14 side Toulouse, the core of the French national team, putting 71 points on Racing 92 in their semi-final.
It was a similar story for URC champions Leinster, who make up a majority of the Irish team, leading to thoughts of an attacking blitz as the best teams in the world come together for the inaugural Nations Championship.
“I think it suits us, even if you look at the calibre of players we’ve got here tonight play that style of play the Hurricanes showcased this year,” Wright said as Rugby Australia announced a partnership with Coca-Cola on Tuesday.
“I think it's not a trend until a whole bunch of teams do it, but over the years we've seen a lot of teams try and all play very similarly, so someone obviously started the trend that a lot of teams have played over the last four or five years. In another four or five years maybe we'll be saying that the ‘Canes of 2025-26 started a new wave of attacking footy.”
Wright stressed it’s a style the Wallabies must look to refine in order to get the best out of their red-hot backline and explosive back-row.
“I think there'll be massive thought being put into it from Joe and the coaching staff. Alongside a whole heap of other coaches around World Rugby around the trade-off of risk-reward and does it become like a race who can score 40 the quickest? I don't know," he pondered.
“It's definitely exciting but it comes with some very intentional training and dealing with a bunch of risks, too, but you're nullifying the risk with that intentional training and trying to get the best out of yourself.”
The fullback returns to the national set-up motivated to turn their results around after a rollercoaster 12 month period for the Wallabies.
"We absolutely weren't happy with results throughout the whole course [over the year], we lost a Lions series. We weren't happy with that," he added.
"We won a couple of games, we lost a couple of games, a whole bunch of games that we certainly weren't impressed with or happy with in totality but more time in the saddle for a lot of guys was great and we're looking at potentially a whole heap of combinations that are going to be a lot stronger again this year."
