There is a fair degree of nominative determinism at play when it comes to Massimo De Lutiis.
As a hulking 126 kilogram prop with Queensland – who once famously bench pressed a record 202.5kg – the Italian roots of his first name ring true: biggest, greatest, most.
But Rugby Australia are also facing a “massimo” conundrum when it comes to De Lutiis, namely: how much should you pay for potential?
The conundrum was plonked on RA’s doorstep recently when Irish province Ulster, with the backing of the Irish Rugby Football Union, made an offer for De Lutiis to move to Belfast. With an Irish grandfather on his mum Rilee’s side, De Lutiis will also have the potential to play for Ireland. (He also has Italian heritage through father Antonio).
Queensland and RA are desperate to keep De Luttis at Ballymore, given the 22-year-old has been regarded as the best young tighthead prospect in the country, and a Wallaby-in-waiting, for years.
Though injury has restricted him to nine Super Rugby games in three seasons, De Lutiis has played for Australia A, been to two Wallabies camps and was pointedly named on every Wallaby team list in 2025 as “unavailable due to injury”.
But with Ulster offering more money than RA and the Reds (but not wildly more), and with the visceral fear of De Lutiis one day terrorising the Wallabies in an Ireland No.3 jersey, the question is: can RA afford to lose him?
De Lutiis has been talked about as the next big thing – very big – for a few years.
As a middling rugby player at the Southport School he was inspired by seeing now-Reds teammate Zane Nonggorr lift the GPS trophy in 2019. He spent all his savings on some weights and for the summer heading into year 11, De Lutiis watched Rocky movies and lifted in his basement twice a day. “I barely saw the sun,” he later recalled.
Bulked up, he starred for his school’s first XV and then went south in 2022 for two years in the Brumbies academy. He was star struck by the old dogs Allan Alaalatoa and James Slipper.
“He was hard to miss because he was bloody setting all the (gym) records coming through,” recalls Alaalatoa. “You’d just have conversations around HQ saying ‘who is this Mass kid coming through?’.
“He’s got such a great build for a tighthead prop, obviously his strength is through the roof and you’re thinking jeez, he is gonna be world-class you know?”
De Luttis played for the Junior Wallabies in 2023, and after being recruited back by the Reds, shone on debut by demolishing the scrum of visiting Japanese team Saitama Wild Knights in a friendly.
A quad injury sidelined him for the 2024 Super Rugby season, though, and after diving back into Rocky montages and the gym, De Lutiis broke the club record of Taniela Tupou by pressing 202.5kg. That’s the same as a two-door fridge, or the V8 engine in a BMW M3.
By now, De Lutiis was on everyone’s radar, particularly Joe Schmidt’s. The Wallabies coach named De Lutiis in his squad and picked him for Australia A against England at the end of 2024. In 2025, De Lutiis got a run of nine Super Rugby games and was on track for the Wallabies’ squad to face the Lions, but a broken wrist cruelled his hopes. Plantar fasciitis then killed off the rest of the year.
In an unpublished interview with this masthead in February, De Lutiis spoke about his 2025 goals.
“Playing some footy is probably the main goal, but I really do want to make Wallabies this year,” he said.
De Lutiis suffered a hamstring injury at training last month and is sidelined again.
The Ulster offer has left the youngster with a big decision: stay and potentially play for the Wallabies at the 2027 Rugby World Cup, or depart for a bit more money and a future in Ireland. De Lutiis would only qualify for Ireland in November 2027, given he played for Australia A in 2024.
Unlike crazy money available in Japan or France, the centrally-run Irish rugby system does not splash cash, and the maximum provincial salary is 250,000 euros ($A418,000). The IRFU don’t top up salaries until a player wins 20 Test caps.
With De Lutiis’ history of injury, sources not authorised to comment publicly, predict the difference in offer would be about $100,000. RA remains confident De Lutiis will stay in Australia.
“He’s been clearly a player of national interest and coming through our system,” RA boss Phil Waugh said on Tuesday. “So, we’ve been working with his development right through all our coaches and most recently with the world’s best scrum coach in Mike Cron to develop his game and grow him as a player.
“And with the platform that we have here in Australia over the next few years, we’re really excited to have him in the environment. Ideally, he puts his hand up and challenges to own that number three jersey.”
The lure of a home World Cup is powerful. But so too is the fear of a scenario many observers can see unfolding: De Lutiis leaves, thrives in Ireland and becomes a dominant Lions tighthead. An embarrassing “how did they let him go?” story in the mould of Lions winger Mack Hansen, but on steroids given the Queenslander is the rarest of Aussie unicorns: a monstrous tighthead prop.
So should RA just pay the full freight and keep investing in De Lutiis’ potential? Or hold firm?
“We’re pretty disciplined around fiscal responsibility, but we also need to be conscious that you need to compete with the international markets as well for certain players in certain positions,” Waugh said. “We do see Massimo as one of those players. And whilst he obviously hasn’t played a lot of rugby to this point, we see the path forward for him and the development of him.”
Alaalatoa said “it’d be bit devastating to lose him, if he was to go overseas.”
“He just has to understand he got called into the Wallaby camp with no (Super) caps under the belt, and he was at the Wallaby camp in January this year. That’s for a reason. That should be telling him, you know, that he’s definitely in the mix. He’s right there.“
Iain Payten is a senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.
