Toomua: no siege mentality

RUGBY UNION: The view from two former All Blacks that Australia’s siege mentality approach to the Rugby World Cup will backfire has been rejected by the Wallabies.

In fact, inside centre Matt Toomua says such an attitude doesn’t even exist despite the outspoken antics of his coach Michael Cheika.

A series of rulings against Australia from match officials and the judiciary have been publicly challenged by Cheika, at one point saying it felt like “us against everyone else” at the tournament.

Richard Kahui and Andy Ellis, both members of New Zealand’s 2011 World Cup winning squad, believe Cheika has created a negative vibe which will permeate down to the players.

Toomua insisted there was no such sentiment behind the green and gold doors, and was keen to also shed any label of whingeing Wallabies.

“I wouldn’t say that’s the feeling within camp in the sense that we’re thinking everyone is against us,” Toomua said.

“I don’t think (poor officiating) has had a direct impact or effect on the result of the game which is the main thing.

“If it was a last-minute thing we might have felt hard-done by but we lost on the weekend because we were the worst of the two teams.”

Accomplished New Zealand referee Glen Jackson sided with his compatriots, believing Cheika had overplayed his hand with the ongoing criticism.

Jackson wondered if the negativity had impacted on Wallabies skipper Michael Hooper, whose frustration came close to boiling over in the direction of French referee Romain Poite during the Welsh defeat.