Addressing the 'obvious place to start' in Les Kiss' Wallabies evolution

It was clear from day one that defence was to change under new Wallabies head coach Les Kiss, and he has immediately demanded a new mindset for his defensive game plan.

“One thing is for certain, that we want to make sure that we make it a weapon for us, so we can attack with it,” said Kiss after revealing his first-ever Wallabies squad at Allianz Stadium in Sydney.

“We are gonna take small steps; we don’t want to go in and change everything, or make massive change, we want to make sure we make the right steps.”

While nothing has actually been said about how the Wallabies will defend, you should take Kiss’s words here to mean one thing: physicality.

Scott McLeod is the Wallabies defence coach, and during his extensive time at the All Blacks he had the fortune to work with some really dominant tacklers.

Mix this desire from Kiss for an aggressive defence with the blueprint of a coach who has worked with dominant hitters, and you will get a hard-nosed defensive system.

However, for those hoping this will be a shift towards an all-out rush-defence like the Springboks, don’t hold your breath; that has neither been a significant part of McLeod’s resume nor Kiss’ MO at the Reds with his then defence coach Brad Davis.

This aside, make no mistake, more speed will be brought into the defensive line; this will likely present on the edges and when the Wallabies choose to inject speed into their shape, but an all-out rush it is unlikely to be.

As with everything about this new Wallabies coaching team, it will be “evolution not revolution.”

“One thing that Kissy has been pretty clear with the group on is this evolution not revolution. I would like to think that you’ll see consistency with aspects of the game that you’ve seen previously,” new assistant coach Jonathan Fisher told reporters in Sydney.

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Nevertheless, Kiss has repeatedly said that he wants to let his “coaches coach” and to “empower them to bring who they are to the table,” and this will undoubtedly bring change. 

This should be taken as the coaches being allowed to own and add their flavour to their designated sector of coaching, for Kiss, unlike his predecessor, is not a micromanager.

He will instead balance the technical with the emotional, and this could be the “evolution” that the team needs after showing peaks of excellent play mixed with troughs in direction and energy during Schmidt’s tenure.

So this leaves us with a mandate of abrasiveness, to turn pressure into turnover from big impact in the contact.

“It’s (defence) an obvious place to start… we do wanna make sure that we can find out where we are when we don’t have the ball, and we feel if we can ignite that part of the game even further and create that type of pressure and turnovers we can, we’ve got some handy players who can do something with it in those situations,” Kiss told reporters in Sydney on Friday.

This talk from Kiss should excite fans as it speaks of a type of ruck counterattack mindset akin to Dave Rennie, who is well known for having a lethal counterattack.

Kiss says defence is an “obvious” place to start and you’d have to agree, because it is no secret that the Wallabies leak way too many points, and in the age of attacking rugby that number will climb unless changes are made.

Numerically, the Wallabies have conceded an average of 27.5 points per game, whilst scoring an average of 25 points per game from their last 18 Test matches since the beginning of 2025.

Scoring 25 points is a totally acceptable Test standard; conceding that many is not.

As it has been for several years, should the Wallabies concede more than 23 points, their chance of winning decreases significantly.

Therefore, Wallabies fans should expect a defensive evolution with a result not too different in the raw optics of that of Lord Laurie Fisher’s connected line speed defence, as opposed to a shape resembling that of Ireland or the Springboks.

But as mentioned prior, the biggest change will come from what happens in and around the tackle once it is made.

We have already seen throughout the Wallabies’ July Nations Championship campaign that there are plenty of ready-made hitters in the squad and now Kiss has gone and added some more.

They don’t come much tougher than Allan Alaalatoa, who regularly melted Irish opponents in Sydney.

Fraser McReight, alongside a much-improved Josh Canham, are definitely capable of whacking opposition when the moment takes their fancy, but that mood is expected to be more common under McLeod.

In the backline, Carter Gordon is one of the staunchest defenders in the No.10 jersey globally; the inside centres of Len Ikitau and Hunter Paisami are both big-time hitters, and at No.13 Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii is absolutely a defensive aggressor.

Further out, Dylan Pietsch and Filipo Daugunu are both great dominant tacklers; even Max Jorgensen can get amongst the tough stuff when he chooses his moments.

Kiss took out Nick Champion de Crespigney, Tom Hooper, and Ikitau; funnily enough, all three are big-time defensive powerhouses.

In their stead, he has brought in Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, Isaac Aedo Kailea, and Isaac Henry. 

LSL has some of the most impressive dominant tackle stats in Super Rugby Pacific, while Kailea has always been ready to sit attackers on their backsides.

The players who will benefit the most from McLeod’s tutelage are big-time stars like captain Harry Wilson, Suaalii, Jorgensen, and a few others, all of whom will be taking away different lessons.

Wilson is a workhorse as well as an extremely high-IQ and skilful player, but he has not generally been a dominant tackler.

In 2026, Wilson took big strides in this area but still missed far too many, and big hits are not a mainstay of his game at Test level yet.

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McLeod is sure to change that and ensure all his vigour and determination can be channelled into his hits.

Previously, Wilson has been seen as getting into arm tackles and perhaps not getting as much shoulder into contacts as he would like.

Being able to unlock his footwork to execute a well-timed hit will serve Wilson and the Wallabies well.

Suaalii has the aggressive part of defence down pat; few hit as hard as he does when he gets his timing right, but He will greatly benefit from learning to read an attack line and perfect his timing.

Throughout Suaalii’s short Test career, opposition have exposed his channel time and time again, and it’s not that he’s not athletic enough but rather that he has not positioned himself right or has jammed when he has needed to stay in a holding pattern.

Paisami is another player who will benefit from perfecting his timing of when to sit and when to go.

While McLeod will not employ a Springboks rush defence, there is no doubt he will see Suaalii’s aggression in defence as an augment to his defensive system rather than a thorn in its side.

Few are as exciting as Jorgensen with the ball in hand, but without it, Jorgensen has left much to be desired.

During the July Nations Championship, Jorgensen tackled at 70%, making 14 tackles of 20. Now, while this may not seem like an issue, when you’re part of a connected line speed defence as it was under prior head coach, Joe Schmidt, that number on the edge is far too high.

In comparison, Suaalii tackled at 91 percent, Ikitau tackled at 78 percent, and Pietsch, across his two games, tackled at 93 percent, making 14/15 tackles.

Physicality and strength are not the issue for young Jorgensen; rather, it’s a question of positioning and being able to find himself in dominant positions rather than compromised situations.

Once McLeod has been able to sharpen the skills of this squad, it will come down to bedding in and implementing the system.

As mentioned, there is nothing that indicates McLeod would diverge from his prior teachings at the All Blacks and Japanese side Kabuto Spears. 

He has been a connected linespeed man but definitely different to Fisher.

McLeod appears to be more focused on the physicality in contact around the ball, whether that is in a tackle or at the resulting ruck, and that is something Wallabies fans should be watching for.

When Kiss spoke of making defence a weapon, and assistant coach Jonathan Fisher described his role as a coach that will help with ‘transition attack’, it strongly points to an aggressive counter-rucking defensive mindset alongside McLeod’s border blueprint.

“To be specific… my responsibility will be really to bring the very best out of the forwards from an attacking perspective, to make sure that when we get those very brief and limited opportunities that you do get and only get in Test rugby, that we take the space immediately.”

Dominant contacts, big hitters, and being able to attack off counterrucked ball all seem within the blueprint of McLeod and in line with what Kiss and Fisher served up with the Queensland Reds throughout 2026.

While this coaching cohort has committed to not uprooting the foundation which was laid by Schmidt and his cohort of coaches, there is no doubt that the system needs a tweak because during Schmidt’s tenure, the defence was rarely a sure thing.

Kiss and his men are an exciting bunch, but they are relatively inexperienced, and so the Wallabies and their fans are now heading into the unknown and can only wait in anticipation for that first Test in the new era against Japan in Osaka on August 8.