In 1986, about the time the 21-year-old Les Kiss was announcing himself to the rugby league world by debuting for the North Sydney Bears, the Queensland Origin side and Australia in the space of five months, the Breakfast Creek Gang was carving out its own legend as \u201ca disparate, yet harmonious, blend of wharfies, coppers, journos, lawyers, car dealers, bookies, small-time criminals and Labor party identities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Four decades on and Kiss, the incoming Wallabies coach<\/a>, is a proud member of the garrulous rabble now trading as the Breakfast Creek Athletic Club. \u201cA very inspiring, talented, connected, grounded group of people,\u201d he tells the Guardian. \u201cOnce a week we meet for a run or a walk, coffee and a chat, maybe dinner and a few beers. We\u2019ve probably all got more problems than we admit to \u2026 but for me it\u2019s a wellbeing space after so long away.\u201d<\/p>\n Kiss\u2019s problem is bigger than most: returning Australian rugby to the top of the world<\/a>. When he takes the reins in July, he has 14 months and 19 Tests<\/a> before the World Cup on home soil<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m not going to be a big change agent,\u201d Kiss says. \u201cIt\u2019s not a revolution, it\u2019s evolution. The right things, the big rocks, will stay in place. The themes that matter \u2013 discipline, accountability, planning \u2013 will remain the same.\u201d<\/p>\n But Kiss is an outlier. For starters, he\u2019s a \u201cleaguie\u201d who\u2019s never even played union. \u201cIt meant I really had to earn my stripes,\u201d Kiss says. \u201cI\u2019ve learned it\u2019s a player\u2019s game and the locker room is every club\u2019s heartbeat. Get standards right, create an environment which allows everyone to be their best, and the 80 minutes of game time takes care of itself. I\u2019m not a copy-and-paste coach. I\u2019m a big believer in values forged together.\u201d<\/p>\n Kiss\u2019s own values were shaped by his parents who fled the Hungarian Revolution to settle in Bundaberg in the 1950s, and his rapid rise as a flying winger in the 80s. \u201cEverything aligned and it all happened at a rate of knots,\u201d he says of his glory days. \u201cWhen you\u2019re playing good footy, all you can do is ride the wave and enjoy it. I\u2019m glad I did because I soon got a big dumper which buggered my knee for four years.\u201d<\/p>\n Incoming Wallabies head coach Les Kiss speaks with current Australia boss Joe Schmidt alongside him. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts\/AAP<\/p>\n The end of his playing career in league dovetailed perversely into coaching union. \u201cBeing sidelined with injury invigorated my mind,\u201d Kiss says. \u201cSomething tugged at me, saying \u2018dive into this coaching space\u2019. At the time I was in marketing, selling poker machines for the Leagues club while coaching Norths juniors. I could\u2019ve ended up an obese, divorced alcoholic travelling the world selling pokies or living in Vegas.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, Kiss\u2019s remarkable rise to Australian rugby\u2019s top job happened by stealth.<\/p>\n By the time Kiss returned home to become coach of the Queensland Reds in 2024, it closed the book on the best part of 20 years overseas, firstly as defence coach with the Springboks in 2001-02, then as assistant coach of Ireland in 2009-15 and three years as director of Ulster Rugby, the final five with London Irish in the Premiership.<\/p>\n Queensland Reds coach Les Kiss calls the shots during a Super Rugby Pacific match against the Hurricanes. Photograph: Hagen Hopkins\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cAll I\u2019ve really been is a footy player and a coach,\u201d Kiss says, smiling under his pencil moustache. \u201cLots of ups and downs, but that\u2019s life. Bizarre but cool too. Maybe it\u2019s not the right way, but it\u2019s how I\u2019ve done it. Family is massively important to me and every team I work with is a family.<\/p>\n \u201cCoaching is about connection and rapport, building something strong together. It\u2019s not a job I ever really clock off from. I\u2019m invested.\u201d<\/p>\n For now, and three Tests in July, the boss is still Joe Schmidt, the New Zealander mastercoach who has patched the Wallabies wounds after a disastrous 2023 World Cup campaign, and whose close friendship and coaching alchemy with Kiss ensures a smooth transition.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve coached around 40 Tests together and developed a very good rapport,\u201d Kiss says. \u201cOur learning curve together has been really strong. He helped me understand the breakdown and taught me to put the right things in place for a team to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n The Kiss army is now taking shape. Scott McLeod, a member of the All Blacks staff at the last two Rugby World Cups, recently joined his brains trust as defence coach, while analyst Eoin Toolan and setpiece coach Tom Donnelly continue in their roles. Scrum guru Mike Cron and assistant Laurie Fisher will stay on as consultants. Kiss also singles out skills svengali Mick Byrne and U20s boss Chris Whitaker for praise.<\/p>\n Despite so many \u201cnew tabs popping up\u201d, Kiss is \u201c100% dedicated to the Reds \u2013 no way will I let these guys down\u201d. His reign has inspired the most tries for Queensland in 30 years of Super Rugby, consecutive quarter-finals and record crowds. In 2026, they are 4-2 and looking to lock in a top-four spot against the Force this Saturday. And as a former winger, Kiss relishes the return of Dylan Pietsch, the debut of NRL convert Zac Lomax<\/a> for the Force and 18-year-old Reds starter Treyvan Pritachard.<\/p>\n These flyers, along with Mark Nawaqanitawase and Max Jorgensen, shape as the wind beneath Kiss\u2019s wings for the World Cup. \u201cThere is a uniquely Australian way to play,\u201d he says. \u201cOur athletes are forged in backyards, friends dusting each other up, finding a way to win. Sometimes you have to be inventive, sometimes physical. The Australian way isn\u2019t formulaic, it\u2019s expressive. Outside influence is important but there\u2019s a way Australians solve things on the sports field that make us special.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1986, about the time the 21-year-old Les Kiss was announcing himself to the rugby league world by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-511048","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}