The first Test Match under new Wallabies coach Les Kiss edges closer by the day, and the whole build-up to Saturday night in Osaka has been about ticking off little milestones and all the ‘firsts’ along the way.
He named his first squad and had his first press conference to discuss that squad and those selections on July 23. He saw that first squad come together in Sydney for the first time, to commence his first camp a few days later.
He then saw his first squad rip into their first training sessions with coaches new and familiar, and for his first training venue, he picked a patch of turf he still feels very connected to: North Sydney Oval.
On Saturday, his first squad boarded a plane to commence their first tour, arriving in Osaka that night, and this week, that first squad started preparations as part of their first Test Match week.
Intensity will have lifted in Test week, because that’s what happens and that’s what has to happen.
Kiss now has to get his first Wallabies squad ready for their first Test Match under their new coach. He’ll have been having his first official selection discussions this week – theoretically, he was ‘involved’ in selections through the Nations Championship – and mid-Thursday afternoon AEST, he’ll name his first Wallabies matchday 23.
Ironically, this first Wallabies squad playing their first Test under a new coach will be coming up against – for a lot of them - an old coach: Eddie Jones and his high-pace, all-action Japan side.
To borrow from the great Robin Williams, reports from Osaka this week suggest “it’s hot. Damn hot! Real hot!”
Iain Payten, travelling in Japan with the Wallabies, reported in the Sydney Morning Herald on Monday that the “temperature in Osaka reached 37 degrees, which is even getting a touch hot for Aussies. The forecast highs for the rest of the week are similarly toasty, and even night temperatures are in the high 20s.”
Saunas have been a regular part of training since even last week in Sydney, as the Wallabies try to get used to high heat and humidity. If there’s a silver lining or any small mercies, forecasts for Saturday night in Osaka have the mercury dipping below 30°C.
Nevertheless, Les Kiss’s first Wallabies squad can’t do anything about the weather except play in it. And the playing part is where the focus will be, because I think there’s a number of things Australian fans need the new Wallabies coach to tick off in his first series in charge.
Oh, to be able to get through a series with the same 9 and 10, the same 21 and 22. No pulling up sore after games, no training field mishaps, no season-ending nothings, thanks.
‘Evolution, not revolution’ is very much a repeated theme among the Wallabies players and coaches at the moment, with assistant coach Jonny Fisher even saying last week in not so many words that we shouldn’t expect too many selection shocks and that he would, “like to think that you will see consistency with aspects of the game that you’ve seen previously.”
“We put him under a lot of pressure, a lot of mental pressure,” Kiss said of Carter Gordon last week in Sydney.
“Made the game, training as fast as possible with very little time to rest and think. To challenge our defence, new defensive aspects, challenged a couple of things in attack. And he partook in 90% of it. 85, 90% of it as we rotated the 10s a bit in that.
“So, no, he’s fully fit.”
And that is very welcome news. Gordon has always needed to string games together, but now more than ever, if he’s going to be ‘the guy’ for the Rugby World Cup, then his need to be the legs getting the most kilometres in them.
But not just for that, but for the fact that the Wallabies did actually look very good in attack when he and Ryan Lonergan were steering them around against Ireland in Sydney. For two guys who played not even minutes together, they already look to have a strong combination that we need to see more of.
Ben Donaldson is fit again and that’s great, too. Declan Meredith now having two Tests to his name is not a bad thing at all, in the grand scheme. And the sooner Tate McDermott can impact the Wallabies in a way that doesn’t involve them losing their shape, the better off everyone will be.
No-one in Australia knows more about the lift in intensity in a Test week than James Slipper. Only one other person in the world – the great Welsh lock Alun Wyn Jones – knows more about it, in fact. Slipper has been through 154 of them, but he’s right in saying the Wallabies will be better off if he stops adding to that tally.
So it doesn’t matter whether it’s Aiden Ross or Isaac Kailea this series, but the point is other players need to put their hand up to be Angus Bell’s deputy.
Bell himself could be the Wallabies next centurion loosehead, but he won’t get there having to play more than an hour every match.
Ross and/or Kailea have to share the load in these Japan Tests. Beyond that, Tom Robertson and Blake Schoupp have to come back into the picture. Behind them, and maybe ahead of them if they can’t return in time, Tom Lambert is going to be worth a look.
Australian rugby might not have the same luxury of South Africa, being able to run five- and six-deep in positions, but the answer at loosehead can’t keep being to break the James Slipper-shaped glass in case of emergency. The great man can certainly play a role to the RWC, and maybe that role extends to an Australian-record fifth tournament.
But the signs of life beyond ‘Slips’ have to start this week.
Len Ikitau isn’t retiring any time soon, but the end of the November Tests last year showed just how important he is to the Wallabies. Like all the great loves in life, it wasn’t really clear how crucial Ikitau was until he wasn’t there.
He’s not in Japan currently and won’t be in Townsville for the return leg next week, either. Iain Payten was reporting from Osaka that Hunter Paisami looks to be the one entrusted with Ikitau’s now-very comfortable no.12 jersey, and it’s going to be a serious case of huge shoes to fill.
Ikitau is the glue that holds the Wallabies shape in both attack and defence. He used to do it from outside centre but might be doing it even more effectively from inside centre now.
He determines the line speed in defence, when to hold, and when to slide. In attack, he knows when to distribute, when to run, when to straighten, and when to be the decoy.
But it’s also the unsexy, quasi-loose forward grunt work that has delivered so much. Last year, it was a stutter -step and face pass for Bell’s matchwinner against Argentina. This year, it was the no-look pass across defenders to send Josh Canham over for his first against Italy.
Paisami – or whoever it is – doesn’t have to be Ikitau. But they do have to be that key man in attack and defence that holds the Wallabies together.
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