Les Kiss takes charge of the Wallabies for the first time on Saturday evening in Osaka, where Australia face Japan in a Nations Championship test and the temperature is forecast to hit 36°C the day before kick-off The Guardian. A typhoon threat has added another layer of complication to the buildup Rugby Australia.

Kiss replaced Joe Schmidt ahead of the 2026 season Rugby Australia, inheriting a side that lost six consecutive tests before steadying with a win over Italy. In that Italy match, played in Perth in July, the Wallabies piled on 38 points in the first half alone The Guardian. Reuters reported that Kiss was likely to retain much of Schmidt's playbook rather than rip up the game plan Reuters, and the squad selection bore that out: the bulk of the XV that finished Schmidt's tenure was kept on The Guardian.

There are fresh faces, though. Aidan Ross and Miles Amatosero made their first Wallabies starts against Japan. Ross, a prop from Bond University, had won three caps before this match and is Wallabies cap number 994 Rugby Australia. Queensland Reds centre Isaac Henry was a major inclusion in Kiss's first squad, named on 22 July for the two-test Japan series Rugby Australia. French-based prop Taniela Tupou was the only overseas-based player in the group.

At scrum-half — the position that distributes the ball from the base of the scrum and ruck — Ryan Lonergan kept the starting jersey, with Tate McDermott providing pace off the bench. At fly-half, the chief playmaker who directs the backline, Declan Meredith wore the number 10 shirt and kept a fully fit Carter Gordon out of the match-day 23 entirely. Ben Donaldson covered fly-half among the replacements The Guardian.

Hunter Paisami came in at inside centre for Len Ikitau, last year's John Eales Medallist as Australia's player of the year, who was ruled out through injury. The Wallabies trained at Hanazono Rugby Stadium in the days before the match, acclimatising to conditions that will test both sides' fitness and game management The Guardian.

Opposing Kiss in the coaches' box is Eddie Jones, the man who coached the Wallabies at the 2023 World Cup and now leads Japan Rugby Australia. Japan arrived in Osaka off the back of a rocky Nations Championship campaign. Their forward pack for the test featured Takato Okabe, Hayate Era, Shuhei Takeuchi, Harry Hockings, Warner Dearns, Ben Gunter, Kanji Shimokawa and Jack Cornelsen.

Australia will need no reminding of the challenge. When these teams met last year, the Wallabies edged home 19-15 The Guardian. The two sides are scheduled to meet again in Townsville a week after the Osaka test Rugby Australia, giving Kiss an immediate chance to build rhythm and assess his squad across two contests.

For Kiss, the priority is straightforward: stop the rot of those six consecutive losses, get his tenure off to a winning start, and show that continuity with Schmidt's systems can coexist with his own ideas. The Osaka heat will not make any of that easy.