Wallabies: Les Kiss admits to 'clunky bits' in win over Argentina and the ‘smart’ team changes he is eyeing for next weekend's rematch
Planet Rugby · Liam Heagney · 2026-08-30T12:50:56+00:00 · nguồn gốc
Wallabies: Les Kiss admits to ‘clunky bits’ in win over Argentina and the ‘smart’ team changes he is eyeing for next weekend’s rematch
Les Kiss has admitted there were clunky bits in Australia’s win over Argentina on Saturday and that he will make smart changes to his team for next weekend’s series finale.
The Wallabies took a one-nil lead with a 27-21 victory at San Salvador de Jujuy and will hope to complete the series success when the teams meet again in Mendoza.
With Kiss having already won this month’s two-game series with Japan 2-0 to kick off his tenure in charge after Joe Schmidt’s final match in charge ended with a Nations Championship victory over Italy, the Wallabies have now won four Test matches in a row for the first time since 2021.
The 2027 Rugby World Cup hosts will look to stretch this promising run to five next weekend, but Kiss admitted there was plenty to fix up following a match in Argentina where they went six points ahead with Tom Hooper’s unconverted 56th-minute try and held out from there.
“Have to be better in that area…”
“We weren’t perfect. Neither were they. They really controlled the ruck well, didn’t they? The speed of ball and their defence loaded up on us,” said Kiss in his post-game TV interview with Stan Sport, the Australian broadcaster.
“I thought we didn’t manage that as well as we could have. We were a little bit too much ball in their area; we could have been more compact, try and penetrate, collapse their defence a little bit more, but their defence certainly tested us. We’re going to have to be better in that area next week.”
What aided the Wallabies’ victory was some diligent lineout defence from their forwards. “Yeah, we thought we could put some pressure on that area for sure and put them under some calls that they didn’t want to go to, so it certainly helped. And we probably didn’t profit off those things enough in terms of, you know, shifting the ball to space, getting our kicking game right.
“There are still a few little clunky bits in our game, but, speaking to Allan (Alaalatoa) and Fraser (McReight), the boys were calm out there for the whole game.
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“They didn’t lose the run of themselves in any way. When it wasn’t going quite right, they kept going back to the things that worked for them. And even that second half, we get one of those tries, perhaps we can put the foot on the accelerator even further. But I thought a good industrious effort by the boys.”
Winning the try count 4-3 away to Argentina was no mean feat, the success highlighting how clinical the Wallabies were in the opposition 22. “It’s something we’ve worked on for sure,” said Kiss.
“You know Jonny (Fisher) and John (Ulugia) have done a lot of work in that area. We do feel that the backs could do a little bit more off that as well at times just to take a little bit of heat off, just trying to pull the trigger and take the ball a couple of channels wider, reset again if we need to, and that would help the forwards out. But they are doing a good job there for us at the moment.”
Switching to Test one injuries and Test two’s potential XV, Kiss added: “Ryan (Lonergan) is fine. Nothing major with the HIA. Ryan carried a flu into the game, and it was coming good, but we’re always planning to replace him early in that second half with Tate (McDermott) anyway.
“In terms of some selections next week, yeah, I think we will (make changes to the forwards). It’s a big challenge here in Argentina and there’s a lot of work to be done in the forward pack.
“So, we’re going to have to make some changes there for sure. Just make the smart ones. You know, we got a couple of fresh guys that we can lean into for sure.”
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