Coach losing home crowd
MICHAEL Cheika’s vision for the stumbling Wallabies has turned pear-shaped with a dire home Test record, a spiral to seventh in the world and abuse from diehard fans.
Cheika has been heckled by the English, Kiwis have taken potshots and now enemies are dressed in gold.
That’s the reality for the under-siege coach after a seventh loss in nine Tests and six tough Tests on the road yet to come this year.
Cheika is still the bestequipped coach to guide the team at next year’s World Cup in Japan, yet how many more wounds will he suffer with empowered South Africa in Port Elizabeth, Argentina in Salta and the All Blacks in Yokohama next up?
Cheika was deeply disappointed that an irate supporter should jostle with backrower Lukhan Tui after Saturday’s botched Test on the Gold Coast, yet he also saw his colour scheme.
“I understand how fans get disappointed, I do,” Cheika said after a shabby 23-19 loss to Argentina that ran far deeper than Israel Folau blowing a try on full-time.
“I saw he was there in his Wallabies (supporter) jersey as well, so he wants us to win badly and sometimes that goes pear-shaped. We can’t be talking about keeping the faith, you’ve got to show it … it’s the national team and you’ve got to show it.”
One major blight of the Cheika era is that “Our House” has become “Open House” because our fortress home grounds have been stormed.
Cheika’s teams have an awful 10 win-10 loss record, plus a draw, at home, which has hit crowd numbers.
Cheika admirably did not try to shift the focus to the ugly fan behaviour or Folau’s needless brain snap with Bernard Foley unmarked and calling for the ball outside him for the match-winner.
“Right now, it would be a pretty average thing for me to comment (on fan punishment) because we let down a lot of fans,” Cheika said. “We should be hard on ourselves because we didn’t perform.”
Cheika said the Folau moment was largely “irrelevant.”
“I guess you win the game and I would have taken that but it doesn’t change the other 79 min 50 sec,” Cheika said.
Argentinian coach Mario Ledesma saluted his team but also put the Folau brain snap in perspective.
“I thought it was game over,” he said.