Full noise, loose screws and the Wallabies No.7: Can Carlo’s way help shock the Boks?

As a former Junior Wallabies peer and now senior Wallabies teammate, Josh Nasser grins when he confirms talk that Australia’s new No.7, Carlo Tizzano, doesn’t lack for intensity.

“He has a few screws loose, old Carlo,” Nasser said on Thursday.

In itself, some wobbly bolts will probably help more than hinder Tizzano this week, after the Western Force flanker was named to make his Wallabies debut against a giant Springbok forward pack at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday.

Replacing the injured Fraser McReight, the 24-year-old flanker was called up by Joe Schmidt in a side that also welcomed back Noah Lolesio at No.10 but is missing star pair Marika Koroibete and Taniela Tupou.

The latter was left out due to the sad death of his father, and though Koroibete was the only ‘Giteau Law’ selection in Schmidt’s squad, the coach said the star winger was not considered this week given a lack of preparation time in the new Wallabies environment.

Up against an insanely stacked Springbok side with World Cup winners falling out of their pockets, the returns of Lolesio, Jake Gordon, James Slipper and Lukhan Salakaia-Loto adds some sorely needed experience to the under-construction Wallabies.

The contest at Suncorp Stadium, however, is perhaps best summed up by Tizzano, who has been thrown into the deepest of ends on debut against the Boks. But he also happens to have an against-the-odds backstory – and an undaunted, spiky attitude – that may just help the Wallabies defy the bookies and trouble South Africa.

Carlo Tizzano training with the Wallabies.Credit: Brendan Hertel/Rugby Australia

Raised in Perth, Tizzano first emerged as a teenage talent who won the WA Premier Grade’s best and fairest award at the age of 17. Born without a reverse gear, the abrasive flanker has spoken about feeling looked down upon by his eastern state rivals as a schoolboy player, and with a perfectly balanced pair of chips on either shoulder, his physicality stood out when he debuted for the Force in the NRC in 2019.

The Force were out of Super Rugby at the time so Tizzano moved to the Waratahs in 2020, and his intensity – and outward displays of a fierce inner drive – kept drawing attention. Early on, the feathers of some NSW teammates got ruffled by Tizzano’s raging intensity at every single training session, which saw him routinely get in scraps with fellow hotheads like Lachie Swinton.

Carlo Tizzano during his time at the Waratahs.Credit: Getty

When Michael Hooper had a sabbatical in Japan in 2021, Tizzano took over the No.7 and in a memorably zany interview with this masthead, the then-21-year-old said: “Literally the only reason I came here is because I wanted to take his spot.”

Hooper was the Wallabies captain and due back to NSW in a few months, and to some, the brash statement came across poorly.

But sitting up in Japan, the man himself could only grin.

“I didn’t mind it, at all,” Hooper told this masthead.

“It made me get on my toes. I saw it and I am thinking, ‘OK, I have to keep on my game’. That’s what breeds a good, successful culture. If you have a young player turning up and trying to be the best player he can be, and that puts the incumbent on notice and makes him become a better a player, you’re going to have a strong outfit.

“Ideally, you would have every player saying exactly the same thing.”

Hooper, who will commentate on Tizzano’s debut in Brisbane for Stan Sport, knew Tizzano and quickly sensed the aspirational line about toppling him at the Tahs was “misconstrued”.

Indeed, Hooper thinks so much of the UFC-mad flanker he flew to Perth in the summer to help coach and mentor Tizzano.

Outside the bubble ... Hooper playing for Toyota Verblitz in Japan.Credit: Getty

Force coach Simon Cron admits he needed some convincing, though.

As Hooper’s coach at Toyota in 2021, Cron shifted to the Force the next year and with Tizzano at a career crossroads – he’d left the Tahs for second-division club Ealing – he agreed to meet the youngster on Christmas Eve in 2022, to talk about a possible homecoming. (Which eventuated midway through 2023).

“We sat on a couch in the office for two hours,” Cron said. “I had some hard questions for him because ... of the Hoops stuff. I wanted to understand who he was.

Tizzano will make his debut for the Wallabies at Suncorp Stadium.Credit: Brendan Hertel/Rugby Australia

“But he explained all of that and I could just see a kid who was really passionate, driven and competitive.

“Carlo is a bit like me, he is a full-noiser – in a good way. Some people get scared of his intensity, to a degree, but I thrive on it. Intense is good. Wind him up and point him in the right direction.”

Intensity will come in handy against the Springboks, who feed on the stuff.

“His energy is relatively positive, more than abrasive, but he fights for everything Carlo, and that’s what first caught our eye,” Schmidt said.

In resisting the urge to combat the Boks’ 6-forward “Bomb Squad” and picking a 5-3 bench, with a second uncapped onballer in Luke Reimer, a light second-rower in Jeremy Williams and a specialist No.10 in Tom Lynagh, Schmidt yet again showed he’s willing to zag when most coaches would seek safety a short-term decision.

So too with the choice to not rush Koroibete and Angus Bell straight back into the side.

“You’ve got to have conviction in what you’re doing. You’re always conscious of what [South Africa are] going to bring, and it’s confrontational and hard to shut down,” Schmidt said.

“By being overly focused on them, we can start to lose a bit of our own identity in how these players we’ve got want to play.”

Watch all the action from The Rugby Championship with every match streaming ad-free, live and on demand on Stan Sport. Round 1 kicks off Saturday, August 10 with Wallabies v South Africa (2pm AEST) and All Blacks v Argentina (4:30pm AEST).