Twelve months after he was overlooked by Eddie Jones for the 2023 Rugby World Cup, Tom Wright capped off a huge 2024 season when he became one of the stars of the Autumn Nations Series with his incredible performances across the Wallabies' 2-2 tour of the UK and Ireland.
Tearing up Super Rugby Pacific for the Brumbies in 2024 with dynamic attacking displays he closed out the season with 10 tries and finished within the top five across key attacking metrics including defenders beaten, clean breaks, metres gained and offloads.
A few months later the fullback did the same for the Wallabies to close out the year, racking up a hat trick of tries, a huge 243 metres, 12 carries and five defenders beaten against Wales in one of his best performances ever in the gold jersey.
With the British & Irish Lions Tour just months away Wright is preparing for another huge Super Rugby season with the Brumbies and is well aware all eyes will be on him to not just back up his game changing performances from last year, but to also build on them.
The 27-year-old knows he must do more than just provide the highlight reel moments.
"Pressure's always going to be there," Wright told ESPN ahead of the 2025 season. "You don't train as hard as you do not to have expectations to win. We're training to win and that means pressure and expectations.
"Having pressure and expectations is a positive, people want to see more from you and want you to perform at your best. I embrace it."
Snubbed by Jones for the World Cup after two disappointing performances for the Wallabies, Wright was relegated to the Australia A squad.
Hurt by the omission, so too watching many of his good mates and suffer Australia's worst-ever World Cup performance after they failed to reach the quarterfinals, Wright said a conversation from a friend helped him garner some perspective.
"My friend told me 'The sun still rises tomorrow', so that's how I've started to look at it," Wright told ESPN. "Perspective's a funny thing. Of course I was bummed at the time, not just for me, but because I know I could have brought something different, but you move on.
"I didn't like seeing how it finished, and I think I could have helped change things."
Maligned as a rocks-or-diamonds player early in his career for failing to execute the simple moments while also taking the risky option when perhaps a more prudent play was warranted, Wright refused to ditch the flair and excitement in 2024, instead he focused on getting the little things right and plans to retain the same game in 2025.
"I've made sure I'm not just focusing on the highlight reel moments, it's the moments in-between as well. That's how I reflect on my game and how I review after training.
"I sometimes wasn't training as hard as I could have and was maybe focusing on the wrong things, but now I'm making sure to really review what I'm doing, be more accurate in all areas of my game, just be more mindful.
"I want to create that eyes on pressure and still want to provide that spark, but I also want to build my connections and get the little moments right.
"It's not about being perfect or perfecting those moments, it's about making the little moments count."