Go you bloody good things!
This 27-21 Test victory by the Wallabies over the Pumas in Argentina means they have now won their last four matches on the trot. It follows a thumping victory over Italy and two wins over Japan.
This was a solid and well-deserved five-tries-to-three victory, with some scintillating performances across the ground.
The star of the show?
It just might be new coach Les Kiss, who remains unbeaten in the role. It’s not quite that he has revolutionised his players, but he has certainly “evolutionised” them, and we can’t be far from headlines about how he has given them the “Kiss of Life”, or the like.
The things that are most obvious in his reign are that our set-pieces (lineouts and scrums) are stronger and the backline seems liberated to spread the ball wide more often. The backs look to be playing what they see in front of them, rather than following some preconceived plan.
Bringing Hunter Paisami into the centres has been a masterstroke, together with having Carter Gordon at five-eighth. That pair were asking questions with every touch, to which the Argentines didn’t always have the answers.
It was ever and always Paisami who was in the thick of the action, evading tackles, slipping passes, recovering high balls and being a barging bulldozer.
In the forwards, ditto, and we are now getting more ruck for our buck than we have in years. Fraser McReight pulled his usual double-shift of work, being outstanding in both defence and attack – a couple of times by “seagulling” out on the wing and monstering the Argentine backs.
Tom Hooper played a mighty game, as did Rob Valetini at No.8, while Brandon Paenga-Amosa had a very busy game at hooker, which included scoring the opening try.
In the lineouts, both Josh Canham and Charlie Cale pinched valuable ball from the hosts, and our scrum more than held up. As ever, when reserve prop Angus Bell came off the bench after the break, his ability to break the line every time he took the ball up was simply extraordinary, constantly putting the Pumas on the back foot.
When Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii came on in the second half, he seemed to go looking for the ball, desperate to prove that he can still make it at this level – and indeed made some great bursts.
From nowhere, the Wallabies seem to suddenly have a great deal of depth in key positions.
Another feature of the Kiss era so far has been, oddly enough, a starkly reduced error rate. In the bad old days, by which I mean as recently as July, you could have put money on the Australians finding a way to lose a match, especially when a great victory was at hand. It is something we have specialised in for years.
But not this time. This time, they kept their nerve, kept pressing the Argentine line, and refused to give their hosts any easy way out.
They looked fitter than they have previously been and were so confident in the final minutes that – despite your humble correspondent yelling epithets in their general direction – eschewed very takeable penalty kicks that would have given them a nine-point lead, preferring to go for the try instead.
None of this is to say there is no room for improvement. One clear area that needs to be worked on in this coming week before next Sunday’s return match against Argentina is our kicking game.
On one key occasion, Gordon didn’t put a penalty kick over the sideline, which would have given us a great attacking line-out, and instead allowed Argentina back in the game, while Lonergan had a clearing kick charged down.
All up, though?
All up, it was a great win, as unaccustomed as we are. Four victories on the trot, now, did I mention, and things are building nicely towards coming matches against the Springboks and All Blacks.
Most importantly, now just over 12 months out from the 2027 World Cup, the Wallabies seem to have been given – oh, why the hell not? – the Kiss of Life!
Peter FitzSimons is a journalist and columnist with The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X.