England resume their Nations Championship campaign with a must-win match against Australia on Sunday.

The Wallabies have made huge strides under new coach Les Kiss, who has overseen a tactical revolution, a statement win over South Africa and a bold new brand of attacking rugby.

Telegraph Sport explores why next year’s World Cup hosts will not be pushovers at the home of English rugby.

Wallabies are battle-hardened

A year ago, the Wallabies were left reeling after their winless northern tour, which rounded off a miserable year with a win rate of just 33 percent across 15 Tests played. This year, under Kiss, they have found out how to win again, but are far from the finished product. A gutsy win over an admittedly experimental Springbok outfit last September left the Wallabies unbeaten in six Tests before a double Bledisloe-Cup hiding at the hands of the All Blacks last month brought them back down to earth.

In their second Test against New Zealand, the numbers were eye-wateringly bad for the men in gold. They were bruised and battered by a first-half onslaught in which they leaked six tries and conceded 18 line breaks, a performance which prompted honest conversations and a lot of soul searching. “We didn’t learn the lessons from the first Test match and then they exposed us in the second,” said prop Angus Bell, the Australia prop, earlier this week. “I feel like the training week we had prior to coming over here [England] has been really good. We’ve addressed and fixed those.” Australia also have momentum on their side, having played seven times since England’s last outing in July, when they beat Argentina in an emotionally-charged encounter.

Embracing a new philosophy... and some old faces

Kiss, an architect of aggressive attacking rugby built on organised defence, has embedded a new, no-nonsense philosophy. While the Wallabies are making more passes per phase under the former London Irish head coach than they did in their last seven matches during Joe Schmidt’s reign, their number of mauls and set-piece efficiency has experienced a dramatic drop-off.

One reason for this is down to squad rotation, particularly in the pack, with Kiss eager to future-proof his squad for next year’s World Cup. Australia are averaging 2½ times fewer maul metres than this time last year, marking a move away from grinding out phases among forward pods in favour of a more zippy style of play that thrives in open space. 

Ryan Lonergan has established himself as their first-choice scrum half but the Wallabies are yet to really settle on their playmaker at 10 (Carter Gordon, Ben Donaldson and Declan Meredith have all shared the role this year). The surprise inclusion of veteran back Kurtley Beale, who turns 38 in January, in Australia’s Nations Championship squad underlines Kiss’s open-minded approach.

Australia’s turnover king

Steve Borthwick, the England head coach, has sought clarity over refereeing of the breakdown and has stressed the need for his players to adapt quickly to different refereeing interpretations in the Test game. In Fraser McReight – who was dubbed Australia’s “turnover king” for his whopping 24 steals across 14 Test matches last year – the Wallabies have a superman in this area. Fresh from winning the John Eales medal for Australia’s best men’s player in 2026 last week, the openside flanker will pose a massive threat to England given his pedigree for snaffling balls on the floor.

McReight has averaged 1.99 turnovers per match since the start of 2025, making him the most consistent jackaller in world rugby. Not only that, he is formidably dynamic in the loose and has been Australia’s leading provider for try assists (Ireland’s Caelan Doris is the only player to better him in this metric). Add the likes of talismanic forwards Will Skelton, captain Harry Wilson and Allan Alaalatoa into the mix and you quickly get a sense of Australia’s explosiveness up front.

They’ve silenced Twickenham before

Although Australia fell short in this fixture last time out, they can draw oodles of confidence from the fact that they have beaten England on their own turf in recent times. Who could forget Max Jorgensen’s scurrying run down the wing in the 83rd minute to clinch a chaotic 42-37 victory for the Wallabies at Twickenham two years ago.

“It was a pretty special night for the whole team,” says Jorgensen, now 22, reflecting on that occasion earlier this week. “To win at Twickenham – the home of rugby – it’s a hard place to win and to do it in that fashion was pretty cool. It can be a daunting place, with 85,000 people singing and chanting. It’s sort of a different type of atmosphere than you get over in Australia so to have that confidence of knowing we’ve done it before is definitely good.

“Hopefully we don’t leave it that close this time and we finish off the game earlier. It’s always pretty stressful leaving it to the last minute like that. A win would be an amazing way to start the tour.” The Wallabies may still be fine-tuning their identity under Kiss but for England, the warning signs are there.