Appointed in April to succeed Joe Schmidt, Les Kiss will take charge of Australia for the first time on Saturday, in a test in Japan. The former Queensland Reds coach unveiled a first team selection on Thursday. The fixture has the look of a warm-up, but recent history between the two sides is a reason for caution.
A first test that is anything but routine
On paper, a trip to Japan in August looks like a comfortable way to start. Recent results say otherwise.
| Date | Fixture | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 25/10/2025 | Japan – Australia | 15-19 |
| 26/10/2024 | Japan – New Zealand | 19-64 |
| 01/11/2025 | South Africa – Japan | 61-7 |
Four points. That was all that separated the two sides last October, at the end of their most recent meeting. The same Japan conceded sixty-four points against New Zealand and sixty-one against South Africa over the same period.
In other words, Japan has not become a great nation in the meantime, but it poses the Wallabies a problem that the other two southern powers do not run into. This is exactly the kind of match in which a head coach starting out can lose credit in eighty minutes.
Joe Schmidt’s successor
Les Kiss arrives with the profile of a club technician. A former rugby league international, he coached the Queensland Reds until the end of his contract before taking over the Wallabies, a transition arranged long in advance: Joe Schmidt had originally planned to leave last October and extended his stay to give his successor time to finish his Super Rugby tenure. The two men know each other, Kiss having been part of Schmidt’s staff with Ireland between 2013 and 2015.
The first squad already says something about the method: a single uncapped player, the recall of the versatile Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, and the absence of veteran James Slipper. Continuity rather than rupture, with one targeted adjustment.
The series runs to two tests, home and away: 8 August at the Hanazono Stadium in Higashi-Osaka, then 15 August in Townsville, in Queensland. It will be Japan’s first visit to Australian soil since the 1987 World Cup. Enough to give the staff time to experiment, but also two chances to get it wrong.
Fourteen months, and not one more
That is the real issue. The World Cup will be played in Australia, from 1 October to 13 November 2027, fourteen months after this first test in Japan. A head coach appointed in April 2026 therefore has around eighteen months in all to install a project, find a half-back pairing, settle a pack and manage a pressure that will only grow as the deadline approaches.
At home, a World Cup does not forgive unfinished cycles. The Wallabies learned that in 2003, runners-up on their own soil, and Australian rugby has not reached that level since.
One last detail, and not the least: opposite him, Japan are coached by Eddie Jones, who was Wallabies head coach from 2001 to 2005 and took them to a World Cup final on home soil. For his first match, Les Kiss therefore faces the man who achieved what Australia is asking him to do again.
The countdown begins on Saturday, in Higashi-Osaka.
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