Cheika surprised as rugby boss springs review
It was put to Michael Cheika after the Wallabies’ record sixth successive defeat to England, ending their worst year, that he must be glad 2018 is finished.
“Not really,” Cheika said. “I love footy.”
The problem is most Wallabies fans do not, not from this team this year. Supporters have fallen out of love with the game and the team. They’ve lost faith in Cheika and few want him in charge next year, even with just five Tests before the World Cup begins.
Australia suffered nine defeats in 13 games this year, the worst record in the professional era.
They’ve lost 11 of their past 15 when you go back to the successive hammering they suffered against England and Scotland at the end of last year.
They finish the year as the sixth-ranked team in the world.
It is the first time in 109 years that England have won six in a row against Australia. The galling part is that former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones has led England to all of those victories, all over Cheika.
The under-fire coach seemed surprised he would have to front the Rugby Australia board and give a season review, believing he did that after the third Bledisloe Cup last month.
He was more alarmed to learn that RA chief executive Raelene Castle had failed to guarantee the survival of his assistant coaches following this
year-ending review, comments she made public yesterday.
“She couldn’t guarantee? You’d have to talk to her about those things,” Cheika said.
“Because as far as I am concerned, the planning of what I do in relation to the team and staff at all levels is with an eye to what is going to give the best outcome.
“Sometimes you’ve got to review, you’ve got to look back and you’ve got to see what is working, what is not working and what can I do differently.
“My goal is to make sure that we are producing the best quality rugby we can on a consistent basis.”
Castle was asked if all of Cheika’s assistant coaches – Stephen Larkham, Nathan Grey, Simon Raiwalui and Mick Byrne – were safe and she replied: “I would like to stand by the review process, we’ll do that with Michael.
“There’s no doubt one of his biggest strengths is loyalty, we need to make sure we’ve got the best team together, but we’ll wait and see what the review process throws up.”