Tom Wright

Tom Wright came from rugby league, spent several seasons being described as inconsistent, and has become one of the most reliable attacking players in the Wallabies side.

He arrived from the Manly Sea Eagles system and had to build a union skill set in public — the positional play, the aerial contests, the kicking game. Fullback in Test rugby is an unforgiving place to learn those things.

What he always had was the finishing. He is a genuine try-scorer and one of the quicker players in the squad, and Australia’s better attacking sequences of recent seasons have generally involved him arriving on a hard line from depth.

The improvement in the last two years has been in the parts that are not the finishing. His work under the high ball is now a strength rather than a target, and his distribution from the back has developed to the point where Australia can attack from their own half with him at 15.

He came through the Brumbies and has been a regular since 2019.

He was born in 1997, which puts a home World Cup squarely in his best years.