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Australia coach Les Kiss identified some bad habits in the Wallabies’ game after their 45-22 loss to England in the Nations Championship, admitting that “there is work to be done” before playing Scotland at Scottish Gas Murrayfield.
The Wallabies finished first Nations Championship stage in July with a 57-10 win against Italy, which was Joe Schmidt’s last game. Kiss then took over as head coach, helping the Aussies extend their unbeaten run to six Tests.
But the Bledisloe Cup run of two nil has passed All black people brought that streak to a head, before suffering another defeat in his first Spring Tour Test. Henry Pollock scored two tries on the wing as England gave their loud home crowd plenty to sing and cheer about.
Fin Smith finished with 10 points from kicking, Maro Itoje had 16 turnovers and Ben Earl topped the list with 22 carries. It was a nine-point game at the break, but England ran in four tries during a 26-point second-half blitz.
“We’re training really well, but 80 minutes is more important. We have to make sure we have that transfer,” Kiss said after the game at Apartment Sport.
“I know the guys are continuing to work hard. We’re going to have to challenge ourselves and each other on what needs to be done, because there’s work to be done.”
The first half was a fairly close contest, with the Wallabies managing to stay in contention despite Angus Bell’s yellow card. Ryan Lonergan knocked down a penalty in the 12thth a minute before the home side hit back with a try from Ollie Chessum.
It was 12-3 when Bell was told to sit down on 10 minutes and England extended their lead through solid prop Joe Heyes. But Max Jorgensen gave Wallabies fans plenty to cheer about on Monday morning in Australia, racing over for a try just before half-time.
‘Jorgo’ picked out a pass and won the race to the try line, before Lonergan added the extras with a routine kick to the posts. The Wallabies stayed in the fight, but England scored a few points in the third ‘quarter’ of the test.
“I thought the first half, we probably got into some bad habits and played a little tight, but we had to get the ball in our hands first, move the point of attack, create our momentum that we have, which we got in the second half,” reflected Kiss.
“We just didn’t have enough of those opportunities in the first half. In the second half, yeah, we definitely started to put something together.”
“We have to be better in the early parts to give ourselves a chance.”
The Wallabies will face Scotland in round five of the Nations Championship next weekend as the final standings in both the Southern and Northern Conferences take shape ahead of the first finals weekend of its kind.
Australia have a better record against the Scots, but an away win at Murrayfield has proved difficult in the last decade. The Wallabies have done it once, securing a one-point win in 2022, but the Scots have otherwise won three of their last four meetings there.
“Those are the areas we’re trying to improve. Some habits we’re trying to break and correct and that’s certainly expensive,” he added.
“We’ve just got to keep working on those things and make sure we’re ahead of the areas we know we need to turn around. We do that in practice, we just don’t translate that into the game.”