Les Kiss Vows Wallabies Will Fight Back Against All Bla

Australia head coach Les Kiss has promised that the Wallabies will respond strongly against New Zealand in Saturday’s second Bledisloe Cup Test in Sydney after suffering a heavy 50-19 defeat at Eden Park.

The loss ended Australia’s six-Test unbeaten run and confirmed that New Zealand would retain the Bledisloe Cup for a 24th consecutive year. The Wallabies were competitive in the first half, going into the break just three points behind after both sides scored twice, but the All Blacks took control after the interval, adding five more tries.

Kiss admitted that Australia struggled to contain New Zealand once their opponents built momentum, but insisted his team would learn from the defeat and focus on correcting the areas that let them down.

“When you get a knockback, you find out more about yourself,” Kiss said. “We’ll work hard on what we have to do and try to turn the dial in the right areas so we can go to Sydney and return fire.”

The Wallabies will have to cope with several absences. Centre Len Ikitau is unavailable after suffering a head knock in the first Test, while Hunter Paisami is suspended and Jordan Petaia is sidelined with an ankle injury. Corey Toole and Kadin Pritchard have joined the squad as replacements.

Kiss said Australia would review the match carefully, looking at how to bring their strengths into the game while limiting New Zealand’s attacking threat.

“We need to make sure we do the work that gets that done,” he added. “Once they got their momentum, it was hard to wrestle back.”

New Zealand head coach Dave Rennie said he had expected a strong performance from his side after the team identified areas for improvement following their recent tour of South Africa. He praised the All Blacks’ ball retention, territorial control and ability to build pressure.

Rennie also backed Australia to respond, saying the defeat would not define the Wallabies under Kiss. The second Bledisloe Cup Test takes place in Sydney on Saturday, October 17.