Wallabies Crush Japan 56-17 in Townsville — Now Argentina Awaits
Australia 56–17 Japan | Townsville, 15 August 2026
Wallabies win the series 2-0 — Argentina next, 29 August in Jujuy
UPDATE — 15 August 2026: The Wallabies answered every question asked of them in Townsville. After scraping past Japan 35-32 in Osaka the previous week, Les Kiss’s side demolished Eddie Jones’ team 56-17 with eight tries — Taniela Tupou scoring twice — in a second half that produced 35 unanswered points. Australia are no longer wobbling. They are building. And Argentina are next.
Australia are heading to Argentina on 29 August with questions they did not expect to have. New coach Les Kiss got his tenure off to a winning start in Osaka on 8 August — but a 35-32 victory over Japan, achieved with fourteen men for twenty minutes after a red card, was not the statement performance Australia needed before two tests against Los Pumas. And it was made stranger by the man on the opposing bench: Eddie Jones, the former Wallabies coach, now guiding Japan with the specific intention of making Australia’s life difficult.
Wallabies vs Japan — What Happened in Osaka
The first test between Japan and the Wallabies on 8 August 2026 at Hanazono Rugby Stadium in Osaka was closer than it should have been. Australia led for most of the match and scored five tries through Harry Potter, Tom Wright, Max Jorgensen, Fraser McReight and Taniela Tupou. They looked comfortable. Then Miles Amatosero was shown a red card for a dangerous hit in a driving maul — his shoulder connecting with Japan captain Warner Dearns’ head — and everything changed.
With fourteen men, their lead evaporated. Japan came back to within three points with two minutes remaining, Dearns reducing the deficit with a converted try that silenced the Australian travelling support. In the end, it was a Taniela Tupou turnover that sealed the 35-32 win — but in thirty-degree Osaka heat, with a man down for a third of the match, they survived rather than dominated. For a side building towards Argentina and the 2027 Rugby World Cup on home soil, surviving is not enough.
Eddie Jones on the Other Bench — The Subplot Nobody Expected
The strangest element of Australia’s Japan series is who is coaching the opposition. Eddie Jones — who coached Australia at the 2003 World Cup final, returned as Wallabies coach in 2022, and was sacked after a disastrous 2023 World Cup campaign — is now the Japan head coach. He knows Australian rugby’s structures, its player tendencies, its mental pressure points better than almost anyone. And he is using that knowledge to make Australia uncomfortable.
Japan’s 32 points in Osaka were not an accident. Jones had his team playing with pace, width and the kind of disciplined aggression that had Australia scrambling defensively for long stretches. The fact that Australia won despite the red card is to their credit. The fact that it was this close — against a Japan side that has never beaten Australia in eight meetings — will have given Jones exactly the information he wanted before the second test in Townsville on 15 August.
Les Kiss and the New Wallabies Era
Les Kiss is the man now responsible for taking Australia to the 2027 Rugby World Cup on home soil. The former Ireland defence coach and Ulster head coach inherited a Wallabies squad that reached the 2023 World Cup semi-finals under Jones before the wheels came off, and has been rebuilding the squad’s identity and defensive system since taking over. His debut in Osaka showed a team that can win tight matches under pressure — a quality that matters in World Cup knockout rugby — but also one that is not yet consistent enough to dominate teams it should be beating comfortably.
The Townsville test on 15 August is the last game Australia play before flying to Argentina. Whatever Kiss learns in Queensland — about their depth, their discipline after the Amatosero red card, their ability to execute under Eddie Jones’ tactical pressure — he will carry into Jujuy on 29 August.
Wallabies vs Argentina — What Awaits in Jujuy and Mendoza
Argentina are waiting. Los Pumas played South Africa on 8 August and came within a post’s width of beating the world champions — a penalty that hit the upright in the second half would have put Argentina 13-10 ahead before the Springboks eventually won 17-10. The defensive performance, the debutants who stepped up, and the near-miss that felt like progress rather than failure: this is a Los Pumas side that believes it can beat anyone on its day.
The first test is in Jujuy on 29 August — at altitude, in the northwest of Argentina, in a stadium that creates one of the most intense atmospheres in South American rugby. The second test is in Mendoza on 5 September. Australia have never found Argentina easy in Argentina. The side that arrives in Jujuy will be a team that has just scraped past Japan twice, coached by a man in his first weeks in the job, facing a Los Pumas side that is improving week by week under Felipe Contepomi. See our full Argentina fixtures and schedule guide for all the details.
Are the Wallabies Ready for Argentina?
The honest answer, based on Osaka, is: not yet. Australia have the talent — Taniela Tupou, Fraser McReight, Max Jorgensen and Tom Wright are genuine test-level players who can hurt any defence. But the red card discipline, the defensive lapses that allowed Japan 32 points, and the general sense that Les Kiss is still building his systems suggest that they are a work in progress.
That is good news for Argentina. Los Pumas at home, at altitude, against a side still finding itself under a new coach, with the crowd in Jujuy behind them — this is exactly the situation that Felipe Contepomi has been building towards. According to World Rugby, Australia are currently ranked eighth in the world, one place below Argentina. On 29 August in Jujuy, that ranking will be tested in front of a packed stadium that has waited years for a test match of this magnitude.
Watch Argentina vs Australia — and Get Ready
📺 Amazon Fire TV Stick — stream the Argentina vs Australia tests on your TV without a satellite dish.
🍺 Craft beer hampers on Amazon UK — the only way to watch a night test from Argentina.
📖 Pumas: A History of Argentine Rugby — everything you need to know about Los Pumas before Australia arrive.
