Let’s stick it to Bob
JAMIE PANDARAM MICHAEL Cheika wants his Wallabies players to produce their most courageous performance of the year after former coach Bob Dwyer gave them next to no chance of defeating England this weekend.
Dwyer told News Corp earlier this week there was no part of the Wallabies’ game that is likely to beat England, saying: “I don’t see where we can exert our superiority over them.
“I don’t think they’ve got the strength or pace or agility or skill to construct any form of game that would give us a win.
Those comments were noted by Cheika, who is desperate to defeat rival Eddie Jones to prevent a record six- MICHAEL Cheika says the fact one-third of the Wallabies team were born overseas is a healthy sign of multiculturalism at work.
World Rugby vice-chairman and former Argentinian halfback Agustin Pichot posted a controversial tweet this week outlining the number of foreign-born players in each nation (Australia has 29 per cent, Argentina none). match losing streak to England and finish a disastrous 2018 on a high note.
“We want to make sure we finish the year with putting our best performance in, and our most courageous,” Cheika said.
“I don’t think it has to be
“What it means to me – I’m not sure about Argentina – but in Australia we are a multicultural country,” said the Wallabies coach, a friend of Pichot’s. “It runs alongside the indigenous heritage, how we’ve also got a lot of immigrant people who come to our country to get a better life for their kids. If those kids grow up and play for Australia, perfect at all, but plenty of heart, plenty of courage.
“I know everyone thinks it’s a bit of a lost cause, I’ve seen some our own people from back home saying we’re not up to it, so we want to make sure that we make every Australian that shows a little bit about what we’re doing down there.
“I’m proud of the fact we have players from Fijian heritage; Tongan heritage; Samoan heritage; Zimbabwean heritage; from South Africa, guys who have come and played; English heritage. Because at the end of the day, we’re all imports down there. We are.” who gets up and watches the game go, ‘Those guys put everything they’ve got into this game’, and we’ll see what happens from there.”
Cheika said he was not disappointed about being written off by Dwyer.
“That’s the way it is, people have their opinions and I’ve always respected other peoples’ opinions,’ Cheika said.
“If they didn’t care about the team they wouldn’t be saying they want the team to be better.
“No one is giving us much of a chance, and the chance we give ourselves is inside our own circle.”
Cheika has previously been left seething by England players attacking his halves at the ruck after they’ve passed the ball, and expects similar this time at Twickenham.
“It’s just something we’ve got to deal with” Cheika said.
“If we’re better at the ruck, then they won’t be able to have that player there to target those guys.”