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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Sport
Angus Fontaine

Wallabies coach Les Kiss: ‘Take your eye off us, we’ll come back and bite you’

Les Kiss hold a green, gold and white rugby ball in front of his face while wearing a blue Wallabies jumper and cap
Australia coach Les Kiss. The Wallabies face world No 1 South Africa next weekend in the first big test of the Kiss era. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

Top dogs at Rugby Australia HQ are generally suited and booted but Les Kiss, with his goatee and spectacles, gets about in jeans, sneakers and baseball cap. Short but spry, wiry like a yoga teacher, husky like a barfly, the Wallabies coach is about to face the biggest challenge – some say the greatest beatdown – of his professional life.

“We have the Springboks in front of us next Sunday,” Kiss says. “It’s a massive opportunity to challenge a fantastic team that is second to none in the world. An opportunity to challenge ourselves too. We won’t shy away; we’ll take it on. This 80 minutes will be a representation of where we’re at – and who we are.”

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