Les Kiss begins Wallabies tenure with Osaka test as temperatures near 36C
Les Kiss will lead the Wallabies in a rugby international in Osaka on Saturday as he starts a short sprint towards next year’s World Cup, with daytime temperatures forecast to reach 36C the day before the evening kick-off.
Kiss said he has enjoyed his opening weeks in charge and used the word “cool” to describe the experience. “I’m really enjoying this process and obviously, it comes down to 80 minutes where it won’t be cooling – it will be quite heated, won’t it? It will be quite hot.” He acknowledged the stakes for Australian rugby at its own World Cup next year, adding: “Smooth waters at the moment,” he said. “They can get rough at any time, and I’m ready for the ride.”
Kiss has retained the majority of the side that closed Joe Schmidt’s tenure with six losses followed by a win last month; that team scored 38 first-half points against Italy in Perth. Ryan Lonergan keeps the starting scrum-half role with Tate McDermott named on the bench; Declan Meredith will wear No 10 and Carter Gordon, “fully fit after a calf injury”, is omitted from the 23, with Ben Donaldson named as back-up. “You’ve got to get that balance right about how much you tinker,” Kiss said. “I know the thing that’ll come straight back at me if I said that these guys had their spot now, they’d look me back and say they want to earn it every time. No one has a right to this position.”
Hunter Paisami is selected at inside centre for the injured John Eales Medallist Len Ikitau while the rest of the backline remains unchanged. There are more changes among the forwards, including first Wallabies starts for prop Aidan Ross and second-rower Miles Amatosero. Kiss said selection was made with an eye to the future and to Saturday’s opposition and conditions.
“It’s a little bit of horses for courses, just to make sure that we know how we can finish, and put guys with experience that can come out and put some energy and finishing power into a game, certainly. But at the same time, I think we start with a pretty powerful team as well,” he said, adding that the balance between the starting XV and bench was chosen with the match conditions in mind.
Kiss warned Japan will demand attention throughout the full 80 minutes: “[Japan] are a fast, physical, dynamic team, they’re pretty fit as well, so we’re going to have to be on our toes right through to the 80[th minute], that’s for sure. We saw it happen last year [when the Wallabies won 19-15], it was a tight tussle and at home they are a different proposition to anything else.” Japan beat Italy 27-10 last month before narrow losses to Ireland and France, the article says, and those defeats were not blowouts.
Captain Harry Wilson said Australia had been impressed by Japan’s recent performances. “We saw the way they beat Italy, it was an unbelievable match, how well they played and across all the areas a really strong forward pack – quite a big forward pack too, which I think Japan probably haven’t had as much in the past. Even against France, they were in that game for a large part of it.” Once minnows, Japan now sit two places below No. 8 Australia on the world rankings and their squad includes four naturalised Australians — Dylan Riley, Jack Cornelsen, Ben Gunter and Harry Hockings. Hockings, 28, left the Reds in 2020 to play in Tokyo and debuted for the Brave Blossoms last year; Wilson said: “I’m really good mates with him. I went to his wedding a couple of years ago, so I can’t say there’s any anger towards him.” He added: “I’m really happy to see him playing for Japan now,” and “you definitely want to get one over him as a mate of him, anyway.”
The Wallabies’ immediate task is Saturday’s test in Osaka, the first match in Kiss’s short run towards next year’s World Cup.