Why Les Kiss believes Wallabies ‘have a game’ to beat the All Blacks

Les Kiss has picked a Wallabies starting side that has more than 300 Test caps fewer than that of the All Blacks, but the coach continues to believe the team has “a game that can win” one week on from a 50-19 defeat in Auckland.

The Wallabies were unbeaten from five matches under Kiss before taking on the All Blacks at their fortress Eden Park. It’s a venue the New Zealanders hadn’t lost at in 53 Tests up to that point, and that streak continued on Saturday evening.

Ben Donaldson set up captain Harry Wilson just before half-time, but the second half was largely one-way traffic in favour of the hosts. The All Blacks ran in four tries and put up a half-century, as they retained the Bledisloe Cup for a 24^th straight year.

Donaldson has been ruled out of the reverse fixture at Sydney’s Accor Stadium, which selectors calling Declan Meredith into the run-on side. Harry McLaughlin-Phillips may debut off the bench, as the Wallabies look to snap a 12-game losing streak against the All Blacks.

“This is a tight group. They’ll back each other. I’ll back them. There is never a player that’s been perfect… there’s learning and there’s growth. Every player is learning and growing and we’ve always said we’ve got work to do and we just want to get better every week,” Kiss told reporters.

“Declan is serving the team in a big way on and off the field and doing a good job for us. Great opportunity for him to grow again, that’s how we’re seeing it.

“We believe that we have a game that can win this on the weekend, for sure, with the people we have. But we’re going to go out there and make sure we represent ourselves in a way that people are [proud of].”

The Wallabies dominated the opening exchanges of the Bledisloe Cup series opener, playing with about 90 per cent possession in the first 10 minutes. Tom Wright had sliced through to score the opener before the All Blacks hit back through Peter Lakai.

Jordie Barrett has risen highest to beat Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii to a high ball, before Lakai gave the Auckland crowd plenty to cheer about moments later. The aerial battle continued to be a talking point post-game, with both head coaches talking about that area post-game.

“There’s some critical areas that they did win and they profited well off it. The aerial game was an important part of the game. When they won it, they made the most of the next couple of phases. We need to be better in that space,” Kiss reflected on Thursday afternoon.

“We just made sure that we’re just dialled into what that aerial game can offer both sides. Definitely want to make sure that our kicking game is more accurate as well. Probably offered them a bit too much easy ball play and gave them a lot of time and space.

“We had over 200 tackles and they had 130 or something. I think if we can control that balance a little bit better with a bit of field position, that’ll be handy.

“We know that the margins are small but we’ll have to be better in those areas to make sure we stay in touch.”

The Wallabies face the All Blacks on Saturday in Sydney, bringing a historic slate of games to an end. Rugby Australia has announced a first-of-its-kind quadruple header, with all four Teams in Gold to take part.

It starts with the Wallaroos against Scotland, with the two sides meeting again as part of the WXV Global Series. Then, the Australian women’s and sevens sides will take part, as they continue to prepare for the HSBC SVNS Series.

“It’s a big Test match against the All Blacks on any given day, that’s for sure. It’s 12 matches in a row they’ve beaten us now so that’s big in its own right.

“But to have the other teams involved playing, it’s a massive occasion to celebrate the two sevens teams, the Wallaroos, that we can have those teams out there. We’ve got some good numbers coming so it’s great to see the support.”