Len Ikitau

Len Ikitau is the least fashionable member of Australia’s backline and the one they can least afford to lose.

He is an outside centre who defends the thirteen channel properly — reading the shoot, making the decision for the players outside him, and rarely getting caught in two minds. Australia have had a great deal of instability in midfield and almost none of it has been at his position.

With the ball he is a straight, hard runner who gets over the gain line without needing a gap, which is what allows the Wallabies to play the width they prefer.

The move to the Premiership was an eyebrow-raiser given his age, and it has exposed him to a different kind of defensive rugby.

Past fifty caps and still in his twenties, he is the most established piece in an Australian backline that is otherwise still being assembled.