Cheika backs Aussies to end English dream

MICHAEL Cheika reckons past matches against England are irrelevant to this weekend’s grudge World Cup quarter-final against England.

His simple explanation was: “Looking backwards is only going to give you a sore neck.”

You’d expect him to say that, but every long-suffering Wallaby fan will be praying he has got it wrong even if the raw numbers aren’t pretty.

The Wallabies have lost their past six matches against England under Cheika’s command and have lost three of their past four World Cup matches against the English.

But Australia’s current form is so depressing that the Wallabies’ best hope of beating England is if they actually can turn back the clock because that’s the one thing that gives everyone hope.

As encouraging as last month’s win over the All Blacks was, that’s looking more and more like another false dawn with the Wallabies unable to get close to that level in their six subsequent matches against NZ, Samoa, Fiji, Wales, Uruguay and Georgia.

What the past offers though, is a reminder that Australian teams have invariably found a way to lift their game at the World Cup.

In the eight previous editions of the tournament, the Wallabies have made the semi-finals six times, winning the title in 1991 and 1999 and finishing runner-up in 2003 and 2015.

And they have succeeded in defying the odds time and time again.

No one should forget they did it four years ago, under Cheika’s watch, when they made the final. And at the previous tournament in 2011 when they lost to Ireland in the pool stage yet managed to upset South Africa in the quarter-finals and eventually finish third.

They beat the Springboks in extra time in the 1999 semi-finals despite having lost four of their previous five clashes, including a humiliating 61-22 thrashing in Pretoria in 1997.

In 1991, the Wallabies came from behind to score a late try and beat Ireland in the quarter-finals before knocking off the All Blacks and England to win the title for the first time.

So it can be done, especially against an England team that has enough problems of its own.

“I’m interested in our blokes, our team. I’m just a believer. Call me a sucker. I believe in my lads,” Cheika said.