Barking mad way to spur Wallabies
WE’VE seen the golf club, poker race and Mt Everest. Now comes the Ferocious Fangs.
Michael Cheika’s latest weird and wonderful motivational tool has been captured in the Wallabies dressing room before their victory over Fiji in Melbourne.
A huge poster of a barking dog was displayed prominently on the dressing room wall at AAMI Park, and was the last thing players saw as they left to play the game.
It’s understood Cheika
introduced the picture of the hound to the dressing room last year but until last weekend it had been placed in a spot that would not be filmed.
Like the Poker Face picture used by Cheika at the Waratahs in 2014, it appeared the pooch poster was caught inadvertently by Fox Sports cameras but it’s believed the coach was aware it would be in public view and didn’t move it.
Cheika was approached for an explanation but declined to share the “inner sanctum” theme of his tactic.
But veteran prop Sekope Kepu said it had a reasonably straightforward explanation.
“It’s about having the dog within you, to fight all the way to the end,” Kepu said.
“That’s kind of the mentality we want to have going into every battle. It’s you or them. You have to fight for everything you want.
“Everyone is different. Some guys show that dog or mongrel in their own different way. But that’s basically the mentality you want.”
Cheika has a long history of using dressing room props to get across key messages.
He famously bought each Waratahs player a golf driver before the 2014 final, urging them to swing away freely.
The Poker Face was designed to instruct his players – then the top team in Super Rugby – to not react to any provocation, and the Mt Everest poster was a weekly reminder of their stage-by-- stage climb to a maiden Super Rugby title.
Some Cheika tricks didn’t get as much public exposure.
He once took a sledgehammer into the NSW sheds before a game to encourage a smash-up and before one game Cheika even took in an axe – that may or may not have broken a mirror.
Finding some mongrel will be critical for the Wallabies’ forwards when they meet Scotland this weekend.
“They’re massive forwards and it’s always down to the forwards,” Kepu said. “The Scots will be a big step up for us.”