Australia coach Kiss expects an attacking edge from England in November
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SYDNEY, Oct 30 : Les Kiss is expecting a real test from the England attack when the Wallabies take them on in the Nations Championship next month, the Australia coach said on Friday.
England-Australia clashes at Twickenham have traditionally pitted English power and game management against the flair of the Wallabies but Kiss said he had seen a development of the hosts' game under attack coach Lee Blackett.
"We've got England coming up, an extremely experienced team," Kiss told reporters before the Australia squad's departure for Europe.
"The game that they're playing, it certainly has the tenets of set piece and kicking as central, but you can see that they're trying to use ... a few other concepts and building that into their game.
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"Lee Blackett ... is a very savvy operator and I know him well. They're going to have an attacking edge to them as well.
"So there are real challenges that we know they're 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."
The Wallabies have had an up-and-down season so far, losing to France and Ireland before beating Japan twice and getting a win and a draw in Argentina. A win over a second-string South Africa team was then followed by two losses to the All Blacks.
Australia are seventh in the world rankings a year out from the World Cup on home soil and Kiss thought the clashes against England (fifth) on November 8, as well as Scotland (sixth) and Wales (10th) on the following weekends, would give him a better idea of where his team stand.
"The beauty of this is we play above us and below us, and that should be able to challenge us in the right way, and assess ourselves in the right way, and be really honest and real about where this takes us," he said.
Kiss said he expected flanker Tom Hooper to be ready to go when he joins up with the squad despite being forced off the field in a game for his club Exeter last weekend after a knock to the shoulder he injured playing for Australia in July.
"It wasn't major with that scapular issue that he has," said Kiss. "He gets a blow on it, it's just sore. But the scans have cleared everything.
"All his movement's coming back, and he's going to join the camp in a good way, which is bloody fantastic for him first, and for us."
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