'Those moments are in us': The Les Kiss verdict on Wallabies' latest defeat

Australia head coach Les Kiss was left to rue a missed opportunity to snatch a late smash-and-grab victory after seeing his side slide to a fourth successive Test defeat, against Scotland at Murrayfield.

After Max Jorgensen’s 79th-minute try and Ben Donaldson’s conversion cut the hosts’ lead to 15-12, the Wallabies launched a last-ditch attack from their own 22.

Joseph-Aukuso Sua’ali’i’s line-break suddenly had the Scots desperately back-pedalling before he released Jorgensen on the right touchline, who swiftly offloaded inside to Tom Wright.

But just as it looked like the full-back might escape, Scotland wing Darcy Graham produced a superb tackle to barrel Wright into touch and snuff out the danger with the final play of the game.

“Maybe we passed the ball a bit early, we could have been a little bit more incisive in that,” lamented Kiss. “But that gives you a lot of confidence really, that we can move the ball like that and play like that – like our first try [for wing Harry Potter] down the left side.

“We know those moments are in us. We set up a physical platform and we possibly could have been a little bit more coherent at times with it. That was a moment that could have turned another way.

“We’d be disappointed because some things weren’t right, but the loss is the main thing for us, you know. We want to win these.”

After conceding 21 tries in their last three Tests – back-to-back Bledisloe Cup defeats by New Zealand and last week’s shellacking by England – Kiss took heart in a vastly-improved defensive effort to restrict Scotland to just two tries, albeit the wet conditions played a part.

“We just set a tone in terms of what it meant to be a hunting defensive unit,” Kiss said. “If you’ve got that energy and that hunting mindset, it seems to solve some of the issues itself and you suddenly feel you’re in a good space. You’ve got hungry eyes and hungry feet, ready to put the shoulder into where we needed to put it. I thought there was a real step up in that area, as well as defending their maul, which they’ve had a lot of joy with at times.

“We also went at them [with our own maul]. Unfortunately it wasn’t allowed [Billy Pollard’s score was ruled out for obstruction by Jeremy Williams]. So I think there was some good things in the Test match that we put up, for sure, but the defence definitely stepped up where it needed to be.

“If we can iron out a couple of little of those little cohesion things that we want in the backs, with Carter [Gordon] coming back in there, we’ll find some more joy. I’m really proud of the effort but we want to win Test matches, and that’s what we’re going to do on a short turnaround going to Wales.”

Kiss described the return of fly-half Gordon, after two months out with a broken fibula, as a “real positive”.

“I thought ‘Lonners’ [scrum-half Ryan Lonergan] and him, a combination that’s very new, there was some nice stuff in that area as well. We felt trying to get a little bit more space for them to play with would have been nice, but we just couldn’t get it as often as we’d have liked.

“But I thought when Carter engaged, and particularly in phase play, he created some nice space. For the majority of the time I thought Lonners’ kicks were good and when Carter kicked it was good, all bar one. But overall, I think it was a pretty good performance by Carter.”