‘They’ll be sending their best’: Waugh confident of French force as demand for Wallabies rolls on

Rugby Australia boss Phil Waugh says he has been given assurances by the French Rugby Federation it will send a full-strength France squad to play in Brisbane next month, boosting chances of a second sold-out Wallabies match in July.

Earlier than desired due to all Australian teams crashing out of the Super Rugby finals, local rugby fans have turned their attention to the upcoming Test season, which begins next month with the first three Tests in the new Nations Championship tournament.

The Wallabies will play Ireland in Sydney, France in Brisbane and Italy in Perth, in what will be Joe Schmidt’s last three Tests before handing over to Les Kiss.

Rugby Australia announced on Tuesday the Wallabies-Ireland Test at Allianz Stadium on July 4 is sold out, further highlighting the strong demand for Test rugby.

Last year saw a record set for the highest total attendance for domestic Wallabies Tests (in a non-World Cup year), with 371,168 fans attending seven matches, at 95 per cent capacity. Four Tests were sold out and others broke records, like the MCG’s 90,307 being the biggest crowd for a British and Irish Lions Test.

“The Australian public re-engaged with the side in 2024, and I believe a big part of that is the way that the Wallabies have carried themselves and connected with the community, and on and off field they have resonated with the broader Australian public,” Waugh said.

“That’s gone a long way to then set a record crowd attendance for Wallabies games in 2025 ... and there is now excitement around seeing the Wallabies back in action in Sydney, at one of the great stadiums in world rugby, in a tournament I think is going to capture the imagination of a lot of sports lovers.”

The question of whether France is excited about the Nations Championship remains unanswered, however. Having generally not prioritised July Test tours and allowed top stars like Antoine Dupont to rest, instead of travel to the southern hemisphere, the FFR announced earlier this year they would not send players who were in their domestic Top 14 final to the opening Test against New Zealand a week later, on July 3.

The fact European champions Bordeaux can’t make the final means some big names, like Louis Bielle-Biarrey, should be available for the All Blacks Test. Waugh said he is confident the rest of the big-name players will join them in Brisbane.

“It’s probably the first time in a very long time that we’ll see close to a full-strength French team, if not a full-strength French team, up against the Wallabies in Brisbane,” Waugh said.

“They’ve given assurances that they’ll be sending out their best team, so (I) can’t speak for them, but we’ve got confidence that they’re seeing the value in this tournament … so we’ve got a very strong confidence in the FFR and the way they’ll be leaning into this tournament.”

But the hunger for Wallabies Tests has also served to highlight the dwindling interest in Super Rugby, however, with the average crowd for all Australian games falling to 11,140 this year.

Asked about the discrepancy between strong interest in the Wallabies, and the growing apathy for Super Rugby, Waugh said the disappointing drop-off in performances had played a role.

“There was a lot of optimism at the start of the year around the trending of the Australian sides and some of the performances, but unfortunately that trajectory didn’t continue throughout the season,” he said.

“Our sides were very competitive against each other, and so that obviously then nullified the number of points that Australian teams got to move up the ladder, which only led to us not hosting any of the finals, which was disappointing.

“We’re certainly not happy with where our team performances were at, and on the back of the team performances ultimately that leads to fan engagement, and excitement within the stadium.”

Waugh said the Australian Rugby strategy for 2025-2029 had set out the goal of winning two of the five Super Rugby titles, and “so we need to improve the performances across our Super Rugby teams to ultimately win titles in Super Rugby.”