The six words coach Les Kiss uses to fire up the Wallabies to win

October 4, 2026 — 5:00am

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In just two months, Les Kiss, the Wallabies coach, appears to have turned the team around, going five Tests without defeat. Next Saturday, they play the All Blacks.

Fitz: Les, congratulations on how well the Wallabies are going. That was an extraordinary feat to beat the back-to-back world champion Springboks last week. So let me ask the obvious question on behalf of the rugby community: How the rucking ruck is a leaguie – whose whole rucking career was on the wing for the North Sydney Bears, Queensland and Kangaroos, and who has never played union – doing so well as a Wallabies coach?

LK: [Laughing, sort of.] I’ve never been asked in that way. Look, I tell you what, though. I’m a good learner. I’ve learnt things from all over, through my whole footballing and sport career. In league, I was coached by great people like Frank Stanton, “Chicka” Norton and most particularly Steve Martin, who coached the Bears in the early ’90s.

Fitz: What did Martin teach you that you’re applying to the Wallabies now?

LK: He made us repeat habits of skill. If there’s one major thing I got from rugby league that I brought to union, it is do the one thing supremely well. Don’t try to do 10 things, because they’ll be half-arsed. Innovate, so you’re throwing new challenges at the opposition, but don’t get overcomplicated.

Fitz: So, if we think of rugby as a set of ever more complicated skills, arranged as a pyramid – with the base skills on the bottom and the more esoteric skills at the top – the first part of your coaching is to get the foundation skills rock solid, before you add the rest?

LK: Yes. And in the actual game itself, don’t be a slave to shape, a slave to structure. Yes, there has to be a structure to your overall play, but it should serve you. You shouldn’t be subservient to it, if that makes sense.

Fitz: I’ll translate for the reader. He means your game plan should be only a rough guide to the Promised Land, it’s not your GPS system on auto-pilot. Play what you see, not what the coach told you to do in the dressing-room before the match. So you’re not a statistics fiend, either?

LK: No, we’ve got to have stats, but I’m not one to put them in front of players. It’s important that I run my eye over the numbers to understand trends. But it should not be the be-all and end-all of why you do stuff.

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© The Age