The Wallabies attack is about to get a whole lot wider, but not in the way you think

If there’s one thing you can count on in the Les Kiss era of the Wallabies, it’s that they won’t be afraid of having a crack, and that every player is expected to work bloody hard.

Kiss said as much in his first press conference and then again on a morning interview with Nine’s Wide World of Sports.

“My points of difference (from Joe Schmidt) would be: how I approach the game in attack; I work off the strong principle of going forward, but I do like a lot more width in the game,” Kiss said.

“We go very hard at the contact, we fight for every inch, and we just want those qualities to come through…”

Running rugby in Australia has often been synonymous with “playing what’s in front of you,” a phrase thrown around when speaking about how to attack and “free-flowing rugby.”

It should be noted that that phrase is a little outdated and should be supplanted by a term many recently retired players or players at the end of their careers use, which is “seeing the pictures.” 

Modern rugby, particularly in the last decade and a half, has become heavily structured, full of patterns, and what opposition are searching for is breaks or diversions from their patterns.

The earlier in the week you can analyse an opponent’s structure, then identify it during the game, the more you can exploit it, hence the better your attack or defence will be.

What distinguishes the sides who are great at creating line breaks, beating defenders, and ultimately scoring tries is sometimes just the athletes’ raw abilities, but it is also about how those athletes in turn apply the structure.

Kiss, while he was head coach of the Queensland Reds in Super Rugby Pacific, had coached his side to have the best playbook in Australia to create and then exploit poor ‘defensive pictures’.

His Reds had the most line breaks of any Australian side in the regular season, and they made several line breaks against almost every opposition.

This should fill Wallabies fans with hope that he and his right-hand man, Jonathan Fisher, who has been brought along with Kiss from the Reds and into the Wallabies, can achieve the same at Test level.

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While bringing exact blueprints from Super Rugby to Test rugby is fraught with risk, it is nonetheless impossible for a coach to shed their coaching DNA entirely when they shift roles.

Therefore, the combo of Kiss and Fisher both overseeing elements of the Wallabies’ attack gives us an insight into how the Wallabies will attack.

“My attention will be on attack,” Fisher told reporters in Sydney.

“My responsibility will be 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 you get in Test rugby that we take the space immediately.”

Kiss and Fisher want skillful forwards, and in that aspect they would be licking their lips at having their two Reds powerhouses in Harry Wilson and Fraser McReight at their disposal.

They would also be salivating at the strides taken by Josh Canham in his ball-playing ability in an attack pod over the last several weeks under Joe Schmidt.

You pair that trio with the so far unsighted X-factor looseforward Charlie Cale and Kiss and Fisher will feel they have a tremendous foundation left to them by Schmidt.

The skills of frontrower Allan Alaalatoa for Tom Wright’s try against Italy in Perth just a couple of weeks ago will also delight Kiss.

He has added another silky-handed prop to the mix in NSW Waratah Isaac Aedo Kailea, who is more a ball runner with fleet-foot work than a staunch scrummager.

This little snapshot gives you a foundation of what Kiss is looking to implement in attack with his forwards, and it must be said, slick-handling skills in forward pods was a huge part of the Wallabies’ attack under Schmidt in July’s Nations Championship as well.

However, this is where the commonalities between Schmidt and Kiss end.

Kiss will be looking to bust down the front door before he allows his passing to do the damage.

Just like with the Reds, Kiss will rely on a big forward runner or two to force the attack line to readjust.

At the Reds, Kiss only really had Seru Uru, and Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, whom he has now brought back into the Wallabies squad.

At the Test level, Kiss has Angus Bell, Rob Valetini, and LSL, as well as Miles Amatosero, Kailea, and Jeremy Williams.

Lukhan Reds attack

In this particular clip, LSL gets a great tip ball from a square-shouldered Wilson to be able to crash over the gainline.

Whether it is to perpetuate momentum or to get it back once the attack has gone cold, Salakaia-Loto’s role was to get the Reds’ attack moving forward.

During the 2026 Super Rugby season, he played heavier than he had in previous years, and that saw him bump anyone in his path, including All Blacks hardmen Luke Jacobson, Patrick Tuipulotu, and Tupou Vaa’i out of his way on separate occasions.

There’s nothing to suggest LSL, with his improved lower body height in the carry and better fight on the ground, cannot achieve this at the Test level, where perhaps in previous years he was a little poorer on the technical side of the carry.

Once LSL, Valetini, Bell or any other of those gainline forwards mentioned above get this momentum for the Wallabies, we can expect a “swing” to come into the Wallabies attacking line.

A “swing” is most simply described as two or more players coming from one side of attack to the other, usually behind the front line of attack to manufacture an overlap.

This is also sometimes best achieved by having “stacked” players in an attacking line, as it ultimately forces defences to defend space rather than a player.

When players are “stacked,” they come at the line in almost a perfect line parallel to the sidelines, which bit by bit folds out into a more common attacking shape everyone is familiar with.

Swing attack Reds

In this example, the Reds hit centre field twice through outside centre Josh Flook, followed by hooker Matt Faessler, then the swing comes in.

The Whole time this is happening, the right-hand winger has been behind the attack line along with flyhalf Harry McLaughlin-Philips, waiting to strike.

Once the ball gets to Lukhan, just outside the 15m line, he pulls the ball to a “swinging” HMP and right-hand winger Lachie Anderson, creating an overlap where there previously was none.

Had Wilson been a little deeper and running onto the ball, he likely beats the covering tackle of the Chiefs’ no.6 Simon Parker and doesn’t get tackled out.

Nevertheless, as seen in the video, a skilful forward is purposefully placed in and around this sort of shape and will always either be a distributor and/or a north-south carrier on or near the edge.

Now imagine if that was Cale on the edge with his wing-like pace. Exciting.

The biggest augmentation Kiss will be able to add to this shape will be the increased athleticism of the players he has at his disposal.

Their speed and fitness will be crucial in ensuring this strategy will work at the Test level.

The speed on the wings, the bulk in the centre, as well as the increased work rate capacities will make this shape all the more potent.

This aspect of work rate cannot be understated and will be integral to how the Wallabies will look to unlock defences under Kiss and Fisher.

Work and swing Reds

In this clip, fullback Jock Campbell makes a good carry back from a kick return.

The Reds sense they need to increase their momentum to achieve a disjointed Blues defensive line, so they call upon a solitary Salakaia-Loto to truck it up the middle. Hunter Paisami is on that wing, almost out of shot; remember this for later.

He does so with flying colours, beating two defenders and making it well over the gainline.

This is where the work rate comes into play; the first cleaner is openside winger Tim Ryan, remember this for later.

Once the halfback, Kalani Thomas, clears that ruck and goes openside, look at the movement by Paisami and Ryan.

HMP gets it at first receiver, and goes out the back of his forward Uru to none other than Paisami, who can either go flat or out the back to a “swinging” Ryan with edge forward McReight and fullback Campbell who made the initial carry.

Paisami passes to winger Filipo Daugunu flat and secures a massive line break inside the 15m channels.

That is the purest example of how Kiss will likely use his players and to set his attack. Big boys to generate momentum and get gainline (something which the Wallabies have struggled with under Schmidt), backs swinging to create overlaps, and work rate to ensure there are plenty of bodies around the ball at all times. 

Fisher will be set on making sure his forwards know how to get forward and when they are to take the lead and head the charge.

The final point to make about the attack is that, as we saw when the French cut the Wallabies up in Brisbane, two sides of attack are crucial, but that will not mean how Kiss plans to plant his big boppas in line with the goal posts, no.

Kiss is a man who likes to play near the 15m lines, and this is where some of his sides do their best work.

Kiss wants his men to carry hard, fight for every “inch,” and never give up.

How this will look in attack is that he wants to go through opposition, not merely outwork them as his predecessor did.