Les Kiss has made the admission no Test coach wants to make. “The work we’re doing is strong and solid. It’s not transferring,” the Wallabies coach said before Sunday’s Test against Scotland at Murrayfield.
Australia lost 45-22 to England at Twickenham last weekend. Kiss put himself first in line. “All of us coaches, in particular myself, have to step up into that space,” he said.
Is this on the coaches or the players? Tell us in the comments.
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Les Kiss: ‘There’s better in us’
A reporter said the players had been “very honest and disappointed” and asked Kiss what he had done to lift them. Kiss said the aim was for the players to be “the ones that drive most of it”.
“Most of it’s just been about… accepting the reality of… there’s better in us, and then challenging in the right way,” he said.
“…No one else can do it for you. It’s up to us and that’s staff included. We stay and stick and we go hard together.”
‘The 80 minutes is everything’
“We’re in this game not to be fantastic trainers,” Kiss said. “You want to put prep in, but you’re in this game to deliver when it counts. The boys know that.”
Near the end of the press conference he came back to it. “There’s no escaping the 80 minutes. The 80 minutes is everything,” he said.
That focus reaches “every aspect of our day”, Kiss said, down to “how we break bread together, how we have coffee” and the music on the bus home from training.
Why the Wallabies defence keeps leaking points
Australia have let in 50 and 43 points against the All Blacks and 45 against England in their last three Tests. Scotland, who scored 21 against New Zealand last weekend, are next.
“Once you lose one connection piece, you get on the back foot,” Kiss said. “…It sort of dominoes on us a bit.”
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Sunday’s 3:10pm kick-off in Edinburgh is 2:10am on Monday in Sydney. Asked what he would tell fans wondering whether to get up for it, Kiss said the players appreciate the support.
“This team will do what they need to to make sure that people are proud of them,” he said.
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