Les Kiss will coach his first match in charge of the Wallabies on Saturday night at Hanazono Rugby Stadium in Osaka, and the opposition is the least of the complications. Japan is in the middle of a heatwave, Typhoon Dolphin is churning wind gusts of up to 216km/h towards the Ryukyu Islands some 1,500 kilometres to the south, and standing on the other touchline will be Eddie Jones.
Temperatures in Osaka are forecast to sit between the high 20s and the mid 30s all week. Australian officials have described the conditions as cruelly hot. When Rob Valetini fronted for the squad's media session on Tuesday, the Brumbies No.8 was mopping sweat off himself with a towel before he had said a word.
"Pretty hot, hey. We just finished our session then so just trying to cool down, and I was just in the ice bath then," Valetini told reporters. "It said 90 in the hotel, but it feels a lot hotter than that. We're just trying to get daily exposures to that, and I don't know if it's working today. I was pretty cooked, so we'll see how we go."
Kiss's answer has been to lift the tempo at training and send players into the hotel sauna daily. Valetini, who lives in Canberra where overnight lows of minus one are expected this week, suspects that acclimatisation will decide the shape of the game.
"Japan are a team that love to play fast," he said. "We saw in a few of the Nations Championship games against France and Ireland where they were taking quick taps, even in their half. So we know that they want to play fast and obviously it's quite hot here, so we think they'll try to use that to their game plan and try and run us off our feet."
Not everyone in the touring party is treating the forecast as a threat. Queensland hooker Josh Nasser, speaking on Monday, was flatly unbothered.
"Obviously it's pretty warm over here, but I grew up in Brissy. We get some pretty hot summers as well. So humidity's up, temperatures up, but it's no different to some of the conditions we get back home," Nasser said. "We play a fixture in Fiji each year, which we get pretty extreme conditions for. We're really not hyper-focused on it. We're just accepting that it will be hot, and then sticking to our processes."
Wallabies assistant coach Scott McLeod was asked about Typhoon Dolphin and deflected it with a straight face. "Is that Eddie Jones?" he replied.
The joke lands because Jones remains the story that will not settle. He resigned after Australia's 2023 World Cup pool-stage exit and took the Japan job six weeks later, having been forced to deny he had spoken to Brave Blossoms officials during the tournament. This is his second match against the country he used to coach.
He also has a squad stocked with Australian-raised players. Former Queensland lock Harry Hockings is in the mix alongside Ben Gunter, Jack Cornelsen, Dylan Riley, Michael Stolberg and Tiennan Costley — a reunion Nasser expects to sharpen the contest.
"They'll be fired up to prove a point against us, I'm sure. Nothing too strange about seeing them there, but it'll be a good battle," he said. "A couple of them are my good mates. Harry Hockings is one of my best mates. I'm sure I'll catch up with him for a beer after the game."
The physical mismatch is real. Australia fielded the second-heaviest forward pack in the Nations Championship at an average of 117kg, behind only South Africa's 118kg. Japan, at 112kg, were the second-lightest ahead of Italy. In heat that heavy, running a big pack ragged is a coherent plan.
Valetini says a mid-season break after the Brumbies' early exit is behind his form — he was the Wallabies' equal-top tackle-buster in the Nations Championship alongside Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, with 14 defenders beaten in four matches, and made 35 carries, one behind Harry Wilson.
"I carried a few niggles during Super, so going into the Wallabies I've been feeling better," he said. "I think it's been all about my mindset and I got that good break and refresh."
Joe Schmidt's tenure ended on 18 July with a 57-10 win over Italy in Perth, closing out a record of 12 wins from 29. Valetini believes the last three home matches gave the group something to carry into a new era.
"I thought we gelled well and played probably some of our best rugby that we have in the past few years," he said. "So we're definitely trending and this game is going to be definitely important."
Japan have never beaten the Wallabies, though they came within four points in Tokyo last year, losing 19-15. Irish referee Eoghan Cross takes charge on Saturday, with the return fixture in Townsville on 15 August.
