Wallabies flyhalf Lolesio returns to Super Rugby action after concussion

Australia flyhalf Noah Lolesio will return to action for the Brumbies against Fijian Drua in Super Rugby Pacific on Friday after three weeks on the sidelines with concussion.

The playmaker suffered a head knock in the season-opening win over the Drua and missed the Brumbies' losses to Western Force and Chiefs as well as their stunning victory over Blues at Eden Park last Friday.

"We had a chance to bring him back for the Blues game but we wanted to give him an extra rest and make sure the head was 100 per cent," Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham told reporters in Canberra after naming his team on Wednesday.

"Really good to have him back in. Obviously, he came off the tour last year with the Wallabies with a lot of confidence. Started the season with us with a lot of confidence as well. I'm really looking forward to seeing how he plays this week."

Lolesio's return will also be a welcome boost for Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt little more than three months out from the arrival of the British and Irish Lions.

Schmidt, who made Lolesio his first-choice flyhalf in 2024, was reduced to watching only one genuine contender for the gold number 10 shirt start a Super Rugby match last weekend.

Tom Lynagh, who won his cap off the bench against Wales last July, also returns on Saturday at starting flyhalf for the Reds for their clash with the unbeaten New South Wales Waratahs in Brisbane.

There was no place in the Waratahs' starting line-up for Tane Edmed, however, with Lawson Creighton getting the nod at flyhalf and the one-cap Wallaby benched for the second successive week.

Also absent from the Waratahs' squad for the third game in a row was outside back Joseph Suaalii, who is still recovering from a toe problem.

Western Force flyhalf Ben Donaldson was the form Australian flyhalf of the first three rounds of Super Rugby but, watched by Schmidt, his fine start to the season stalled in a loss to the Waratahs in Sydney last weekend.

Donaldson, who has won 17 Wallabies caps since making his debut in 2022, has been rested along with test halfback Nic White for the Force's trip to Christchurch to play the Crusaders on Saturday.

The Lions play their first tour match against the Force in Perth on June 28 before three tests against the Wallabies in July and early A