Zac Lomax has signed a two-year deal with the Western Force and Rugby Australia, ending a dramatic contract saga that ran for months. What should have been a triumphant moment for a returning code-switcher instead became a masterclass in the art of saying nothing when everything hangs in the balance.
Sitting at Rugby Australia headquarters in Sydney on Tuesday, the 26-year-old joined from rugby league club Parramatta Eels after 133 appearances in the NRL, flanked by RA boss Phil Waugh, director of high-performance Peter Horne, and Western Force CEO Niamh O'Connor. The room was packed. Television cameras lined the back. This was Lomax's moment to silence the critics and reset the narrative.
But when a journalist posed what amounted to a straightforward question in open space with no one in defence, Lomax fumbled. Having initially been granted a release to pursue a deal with breakaway union competition R360, when that competition was postponed, he attempted to secure a return to the NRL with Melbourne Storm, a move which was blocked by the Eels. Parramatta took legal action and argued that Lomax had agreed he would not join another NRL club without their permission as part of the deal which was struck to release him. That dispute raged on for weeks and was escalated up into the Supreme Court of New South Wales before an out-of-court settlement was eventually agreed. The question came straight out of this messy history: given he hadn't fulfilled his past two NRL contracts, could he give rugby fans an assurance that if things went badly in Western Australia, he wouldn't walk out on the code?
"That was the decision I made and I stick by it," Lomax replied, before launching into a rambling answer about the faith shown in him and his family's imminent move. A simple "I won't be breaking my contract" would have sufficed. Even "I'm committed until the end of 2027" would have done the job. Instead, Lomax stayed married to his script, dodging where he could and saying as little as possible. After being in pre-season limbo, unsure where his 2026 playing future lay, Lomax revealed he had barely been able to train. "To be fair, I've just been doing a lot of kick-catch with my family and my partner, so not a whole heap," he said.
Having last played rugby in primary school, the 26-year-old is realistic about his place in the pecking order ahead of his potential Super Rugby Pacific debut for the Western Force. "It's a mountain that I'm at the bottom of and I really want to climb and become the best rugby union player that I possibly can," Lomax told a packed press room at Rugby Australia headquarters in Sydney. The self-awareness was refreshing. The evasiveness that preceded it was not.
When asked about his initial pursuit of a deal with breakaway union competition R360, Lomax tried to have it both ways, arguing that he had wanted out of Parramatta to join R360, albeit for significantly more money than the Western Force deal offers. The implication: he was forced into rugby union by circumstance, not drawn to it by genuine desire. That narrative sits uncomfortably alongside his public statements about the Wallabies dream and the challenge of the 15-a-side game.
There were lighter moments. Lomax credited Wallabies prop Angus Bell for guiding his push towards moving to rugby union. He revealed he'd sought advice from Sonny Bill Williams, a genuine code-switcher who knows the terrain. Yet every time he had a chance to move beyond corporate speak and connect genuinely with the room, he retreated.
The old Lomax—the one who created genuine uncertainty about his next move, who fought in court, who spent weeks in limbo—loomed over the press conference. The former NSW State of Origin winger insisted he has no regrets and stands by all his career calls, saying "It's my decisions and they're the ones that I've made and it's one that I stick by." Fair enough. But for a player entering a new code at age 26, trying to convince a sceptical rugby audience he's serious, Tuesday's performance felt like a missed opportunity.
Lomax is set to be available for the Force's Round Seven match against the Chiefs on March 28 after their bye. By then, the scripts can come down. On the paddock, evasiveness won't work. Rugby tests character in ways a press conference cannot.
For Lomax, everything now depends on what happens when he pulls on the Force jersey for the first time.