{"id":284586,"date":"2025-07-23T07:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T07:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/284586\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T07:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T07:08:10","slug":"wallaby-snubs-case-for-recall-earns-big-endorsements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/284586\/","title":{"rendered":"Wallaby snub’s case for recall earns big endorsements"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

He has the support of Test greats Michael Hooper<\/a> and Toutai Kefu<\/a>, and Lukhan Salakaia-Loto<\/a> hopes he has also won over Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt after another rousing audition against the British and Irish Lions.<\/p>\n

Salakaia-Loto was a stand-out as the First Nations and Pasifika XV almost caused a massive boilover at Marvel Stadium before falling to a 24-19 defeat.<\/p>\n

It was the lock\/back-rower\u2019s third meeting with the Lions<\/a> and he again proved he has the skills, physicality and aggressive mindset to unsettle the highly fancied tourists.<\/p>\n

His First Nations and Pasifika coach Kefu, an integral part of the Wallabies team that downed the Lions in 2001, said Salakaia-Loto had been \u201coutstanding\u201d, while Test centurion and former captain Hooper said the 28-year-old should be in the starting side.<\/p>\n

But Salakaia-Loto wasn\u2019t convinced he would be recalled to the Wallabies squad ahead of their must-win match at the MCG on Saturday night, when they need a victory to keep the series alive after a loss in Brisbane.<\/p>\n

Told by Schmidt he needed more minutes after an injury-affected Super season, Salakaia-Loto said he\u2019d done what he could.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had three chances, three cracks at these guys, so I don\u2019t have any more chances to sort of try and push my case forward,\u201d the Reds<\/a> veteran said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got my flight details to go home, back to Brissie to see my two girls and my partner, so that\u2019s all I\u2019m worried about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salakaia-Loto said his performance had been inspired by the emotion of representing his Samoan culture and family, as well as \u201ca bit of frustration\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said he also took the attitude that he didn\u2019t care about the celebrated status of the Lions players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be honest, I just don\u2019t care,\u201d said the 30-cap forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a taste of them up against the Reds, and I just knew that what they\u2019re about means nothing to me. I just go out there and play.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou mix that with a bit of frustration, a bit of emotion, and I guess the passion that I\u2019ve been playing (with), especially for this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Wallabies team for the second Test will be revealed on Thursday, the Lions appear set to rule out lock Joe McCarthy<\/a> and winger Mack Hansen<\/a>, with the star Irish pair both battling foot injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe hasn\u2019t trained so far, but with the nature of the week, which is a bit different, we will see how he is for Thursday,\u201d said coach Andy Farrell.<\/p>\n

\u201cMack\u2019s progressing. Whether he\u2019s progressing quick enough, we\u2019ll see towards the end of the week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Owen Farrell captained the Lions for the first time and completed 80 minutes against the First Nations and Pasifika outfit to put his hand up for a midfield bench role.<\/p>\n

Farrell described the MCG clash, where more than 90,000 fans are expected, as the \u201cbiggest game of our lives\u201d and said his team would need to improve to beat a desperate Wallabies side.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will have to be plenty of improvement to get to the point where there\u2019s a win on the cards, because we know that Australia<\/a> are going to be a lot better,\u201d Farrell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can\u2019t get up for what\u2019s coming, we\u2019re all in the wrong place. To me, this is the biggest game of our lives for every one of us who is part of our squad.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He has the support of Test greats Michael Hooper and Toutai Kefu, and Lukhan Salakaia-Loto hopes he has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-284586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114901293649843590","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}