Miles Amatosero has not arrived in the Wallabies squad as a quiet development pick. He has arrived with size, edge and a very obvious challenge attached.
The Waratahs lock is one of three uncapped players in Joe Schmidt’s 37-man squad for July’s Nations Championship Tests, with Australia opening against Ireland in Sydney before facing France in Brisbane and Italy in Perth. For a Wallabies pack still trying to build Test-level consistency, Amatosero’s call-up is more than a feel-good reward for a strong Super Rugby Pacific season.
It is a test of whether Australia can take a 203cm, 125kg second-rower with genuine bite and turn that edge into clean, repeatable Test-match pressure.
A call-up with a harder edge
Amatosero’s route into this squad is not straightforward. Rugby Australia confirmed he began as a South Coogee junior, came through the NSW pathway, spent three years with Clermont Auvergne in France and returned to Sydney before the 2024 Super Rugby Pacific season. The Waratahs also noted that he played all 14 of their Super Rugby matches in 2026, starting 12.
That matters because Schmidt has not simply picked size. He has picked a player who has lived through a turbulent start to the year, rebuilt his case on the field and forced his way into a national group that already had plenty of second-row debate around it.
Read Rugby Union has already looked at how Schmidt’s lock call put the Wallabies rebuild on a sharper footing, particularly after Lukhan Salakaia-Loto was left out. Amatosero now becomes one of the players who has to justify that bet.
Australia need bite, but not heat
The most interesting part of this selection is not whether Amatosero can be physical. That part is obvious. The question is whether he can be physical without giving Ireland, France or Italy the cheap entry points that Test sides punish quickly.
Australia have spent too much of the past few years trying to solve the same balance: bring enough confrontation to live with the best packs in the world, but avoid the discipline slips that turn territory into scoreboard pressure. Amatosero’s profile sits right in that space.
Rugby Australia’s own reporting around his squad reaction made clear that the 24-year-old understands the line he has to walk after the training-ground incident with Angus Scott-Young earlier in the year. That is why this call-up feels significant. It is not a free pass for raw aggression. It is an invitation to show that his best rugby can be controlled, not merely combustible.
Schmidt’s wider squad already has work-rate locks and experienced forwards around him. If Amatosero gets a debut, his job will not be to prove that he can make a statement. It will be to prove that he can make the right statement at the right time.
Ireland opener gives the decision real weight
The opening Test against Ireland at Allianz Stadium is sold out, and it is exactly the sort of environment that can expose young forwards. Ireland’s lineout accuracy, breakdown pressure and ability to drag opponents into long defensive sequences will ask questions that Super Rugby does not always ask in the same way.
That is also why Amatosero is such a compelling selection. The Wallabies do not need another tidy squad option. They need forwards who can make Ireland feel Australia at the collision point, especially after the injury reshuffle that has already changed the shape of Andy Farrell’s tour. Our recent piece on how the Doris blow gives the Wallabies opener a sharper edge touched on that opportunity.
Amatosero will not decide the series by himself, and it would be unfair to present his selection that way. But he does offer a glimpse of the sort of pack Australia are trying to build before the 2027 World Cup: bigger, nastier at the gainline, and less passive when the contest turns awkward.
That is why his selection sits neatly beside the broader youth thread in this Wallabies group. Schmidt has already brought Declan Meredith and Lachlan Shaw into the same uncapped bracket, and the broader Wallabies young core now has a proper July test.
Schmidt’s gamble is really about trust
For Amatosero, the opportunity is clear. Earn trust in training, hold discipline under pressure, and he can move quickly from squad bolter to genuine Test option. Australia’s second-row picture is not closed, particularly with Will Skelton unavailable for this window and the coaching handover to Les Kiss still waiting beyond July.
For Schmidt, the call is just as revealing. He is asking supporters to see beyond the noise around Amatosero’s year and judge the player in front of him now: a Waratahs lock who stayed in the fight, played week after week, and carries the kind of physical ceiling Australia cannot ignore.
The Wallabies have often talked about edge. Amatosero’s challenge is to show them what it looks like when edge comes with control.
