Tuqiri: Don’t remove Cheika
FORMER Wallaby Lote Tuqiri laments the state of Australian rugby but says sacking Michael Cheika is not the answer.
Cheika is under enormous pressure to hold his coaching job through to next year’s World Cup, but Tuqiri, who played 67 Tests for Australia, said Rugby Australia had to “pick and stick” less than a year out from the major tournament.
“It’s a high-pressure sport, people expect results,” Tuqiri said. “But I think he’s the right man for the job.
“You’ve got to pick and stick, you can’t be thinking about other things this close to a World Cup.
“And he’s not out there on the field doing the work, you can only do so much and players have to have some accountability.
“I think they actually do, I think they realise the pressure they’re under but we just don’t have the results and that’s the frustrating thing.”
Australia slumped to a historic low ranking of seventh after their insipid loss to Argentina on the Gold Coast, something Tuqiri admitted hurt as a former Wallaby.
“I’m right here supporting the boys at the moment but you can’t be happy with that. Some (losses) have been pretty bad and I guess the one down here against Argentina wasn’t the best,” said Tuqiri, who was on the Gold Coast to launch the Beach Rugby Australia tournament at Kirra.
“But in saying that, we go all right in tournament play and I’m looking forward to the World Cup next year.
“You want to play well there but you need some confidence going into it and as an explayer or the Australian public, we want to feel confident going into the World Cup but without the wins it’s hard to feel that and keep talking the squad up.”
Results in the final games of the Rugby Championship and Spring Tour would help restore confidence for a squad Tuqiri believes has the nucleus of players to take them through to the World Cup.
“We just need some results – you get results, you get the confidence back and we just need a couple of good wins to go our way,” he said.
“Hopefully Cheika will take them away on the end-ofseason tour and build a squad that’ll take them through to the World Cup. He’s got the nucleus there, we just need guys to step up to a level where they’re world-class and there’s probably only one or two, in that team at the moment.”