Larkham confirms up to six Australia A stars could join Wallabies for Nations Championship tour

Stephen Larkham has confirmed that up to six Australia A players could be promoted to the Wallabies squad for the second half of their Nations Championship campaign, with Les Kiss’s side set to face England, Scotland and Wales across consecutive weekends in November before Finals Day at Allianz Stadium.

The Brumbies head coach made the revelation after overseeing a commanding 52-0 victory over the USA Men at Sports Illustrated Stadium in New Jersey on Friday — the second win of a clean sweep, following a 61-12 result in Tennessee earlier in the tour.

“Some of them are in discussion at the moment — [I’ve] been back and forth with Les over the last 24 hours around some of the players before the game tonight,” Larkham said post-match. “We’ve got three guys out of our squad at the moment that are going and there’s a possibility of two or three more other guys being called in.”

Larkham declined to name which players would be staying on in the northern hemisphere, but several individuals caught the eye across the two matches. Fly-half Harry McLaughlin-Phillips contributed 17 points in Friday’s win, while cross-code recruit Zac Lomax was widely praised on his representative debut for Australia.

The Australia A touring party includes 12 capped Wallabies, giving Kiss a ready-made pool of experienced options to draw from should he choose to expand his squad. Larkham described the series as an explicit pathway for his players to reach the Test level.

“This is a stepping stone for all of our players to get to that next level, which is where they all want to go,” he said.

Australia currently sit third in the southern hemisphere pool of the Nations Championship after a mixed Southern Series campaign that included narrow defeats to Ireland and France, and a first win of the competition against Italy. Kiss and the Wallabies are already en route to Europe ahead of the November fixtures.