Kurtley Beale has a real shot at adding to his 95 Tests as an inside centre as Wallabies coach Les Kiss made it clear on Friday that the 37-year-old was not there to make up the numbers.
Beale played his last Test five years ago and won a shock recall on Wednesday following Hunter Paisami’s withdrawal from the Nations Championship squad.
Kurtley Beale of the Force passes the ball. Getty
Kiss picked Isaac Henry at No.12 in Australia’s last Test against the All Blacks, and he is the favourite to hold that position for the November 9 (AEDT) clash with England at Twickenham.
But Kiss would have no hesitation in playing Beale, and he is likely to feature at some stage over four November Tests in the United Kingdom.
“No-one comes in just to fill a void,” Kiss told reporters on Friday at the team’s Coogee team hotel ahead of the Wallabies’ Saturday flight out of Sydney.
“He’s in there to perform, and I have spoken to him on this. I like the fact that we’ve given the younger guys a chance to grow, without the experience sitting on their shoulder.
“We’ve always said we’d lean back into the experience if we wanted to, but he’s coming in to predominantly drive that second five-eighth position, 12, around that area. And he can flex into 15 and 10 in our sessions and in how we build our game, going forward.”
Kiss consulted Beale’s ex-teammate Nic White and Western Force coaches Simon Cron and Brad Harris before picking the veteran.
“The feedback I got is he’s been super quality around the group in terms of, holistically, just helping drive the programme. Similar to James O’Connor, they’ve both been like that. But Kurtley’s aware of where he sits with that.
“I know he’s hungry to do what he can. He just said, ‘I just want the team to be better’, and he’ll work hard for us.”
Kiss admitted it was disappointing to lose Paisami, who will instead focus on settling into his new life in Japan with the Shizuoka Blue Revs.
But the 61-year-old was in a typically upbeat mood following Thursday night’s Rugby Australia Awards, where gun flanker Fraser McReight took out the John Eales Medal.
Kiss knows England’s capital very well, having coached London Irish from 2018-23.
Eddie Jones talks to Les Kiss in 2019 when the pair were coaching in England. Getty Images
“There’s no better place in rugby in a lot of ways (than Twickenham) in terms of those wonderful battles between Australia and England,” he said.
“The game that they’re playing, it certainly has the tenets of set piece and kicking are central, but you can see… they’re going to have an attacking edge to them as well.
“So there are real challenges that we know that are ahead of us, but that’s what we need. We need that now. This is the last window before we close out into what will become a massive year for every country.”
Wallabies squad for Nations Championship
Forwards: Harry Wilson (c), Allan Alaalatoa, Miles Amatosero, Angus Bell, Josh Canham, Massimo De Lutiis, Tom Hooper, Isaac Kailea, Tom Lambert, Fraser McReight, Josh Nasser, Brandon Paenga-Amosa, Billy Pollard, Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, Lachlan Shaw, Carlo Tizzano, Taniela Tupou, Rob Valetini, Jeremy Williams
Backs: Kurtley Beale, Filipo Daugunu, Ben Donaldson, Carter Gordon, Isaac Henry, Len Ikitau, Max Jorgensen, Ryan Lonergan, Tate McDermott, Declan Meredith, Harry Potter, James Ramm, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Kalani Thomas, Teddy Wilson, Tom Wright
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