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Australia coach Les Kiss insists the Wallabies will be “up for the fight” when they meet two-time defending Rugby World Cup winners the Springboks later this month, following a historic series win in Argentina.
Kiss is yet to lose a Test in the Wallabies top charge, with the men in gold currently on a five-game unbeaten run. That includes one win against Italy under Joe Schmidt, before facing Japan and Argentina twice each.
The Wallabies were held to a 28-all draw in a thriller against Los Pumas, with the home side avoiding defeat, despite going down to 13 men with about 10 minutes left at Estadio Malvinas Argentinas in Mendoza.
It’s been a successful road trip for the Aussies, who have claimed a series win away to Los Pumas for the first time. The Wallabies now look ahead to a clash with the world’s top-ranked side later this month.
The Springboks are 2-1 up in the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Series against the All Blacks and have one more Test to play in Baltimore, the USA. Meanwhile, the Wallabies will look to recharge before facing a side they’ve beaten as recently as last year.
“I was just talking to the coaches earlier, just having a debrief. We feel that some of the decisions we’ve made over this four or five weeks, we got a lot of good information from it,” Kiss told reporters after the draw with Los Pumas.
“It was important that this whole group knew that we were going to back them. They knew that we were going to challenge them in many different ways, and I think we’ve done that for the group.
“We’ll get a lot of pay from that down the road. We’re certainly going to be doing what we can over the next two, three weeks to go prepare well for the Springboks.
“We know that we’re playing the number one nation in the world… we’re going to have to make sure we get some things better to be able to front up against the Springboks. It will be tough, but I’m pretty sure the boys will be up for the fight.”
Harry Wilson and Max Jorgensen touched down for first-half tries on Saturday, but it was all-square at 14-all at the break. Fraser McReight then gave the Wallabies the lead back with a try six minutes into the second term.
But Los Pumas continued to fight their way back, and even when they conceded two yellow cards and went down to 13 men, the hosts still gave it their all. With time up on the clock, the Pumas looked to run it out of their own 22 in chase of a valiant win.
“Securing that trophy is definitely one of the things that we came here to do, without a doubt. Talking to the lads, very pleased that that part of the equation was on point,” Kiss said.
“We probably took control of patches of that game and put ourselves in a good position to win it but as it is over here, it’s tough. The boys are a little bit disappointed that they just didn’t go on with it for sure.
“Mixed feelings in a way but there is something that we did come here to achieve and we got that… the rugby bit is trying to get some areas of our game a little bit better and a bit more robust and we’ve got things to work on for sure.”