Cheika bugged by rival guess
A BEMUSED Michael Cheika is at a loss to explain how All Blacks rival Steve Hansen was able to pick his team the day before the Wallabies announced it.
Hansen correctly predicted on Thursday morning that Quade Cooper would be dropped to the bench so that winger Reece Hodge could be picked at inside centre, a bold move that was confirmed when the Wallabies announced their team yesterday.
Prior to arriving in Auckland the Wallabies were staying at the Intercontinental Hotel in Double Bay – where the All Blacks found a hidden listening device in a team room when they stayed there earlier this year leading to an ongoing police investigation.
Cheika joked that he had been unable to find similar bug that could have given Hansen advanced knowledge of his team selections.
“The bug’s not working any more so he must have had somebody there watching us, he must’ve known somehow, I’m not sure because the bug’s gone,” Cheika said.
“We stayed in Double Bay, did a bit of a broom around and couldn’t find any.”
But there must be serious concerns about how Hansen came upon this information and was so confident of it that he boldly told reporters before the Wallabies had even started training on Thursday. It is not the first time Hansen has been able to accurately tip the Wallabies’ line-up this year.
Amid this backdrop, Australia is trying to end 30 years of misery. They have not beaten the All Blacks at Eden Park since 1986.
“If we start to think what’s not possible then we’ll only come up with a negative answer,” Cheika said.
“Yes ... we haven’t done well here for a fair while but if you don’t have the dream or the conception inside that you can go out there and do it, then it’s never going to happen.”
Cheika has opted to throw five-Test rookie Hodge into the midfield for this pressure cooker, which will either be an inspired choice or a miscalculation.
“I thought it’s pretty standard for me to want to have a look at that combination now, I’ve wanted to for a bit but I thought the other combination (Cooper and Bernard Foley) had being working pretty well but I thought I’d take the opportunity to have a look at that, see how it goes,” Cheika said, adding that it allowed him to bring Henry Speight into the starting side for his first Test of the year after his stint in Sevens.
“He’s another piece of the puzzle, it’s not just the 10s and 12s.”