Cheika: Wallabies ready to step up for All Blacks challenge
Michael Cheika says the Wallabies are ready to step up to the challenge of meeting the All Blacks in Perth in a fortnight after notching just their third Rugby Championship win in the past eight games against Argentina at Suncorp Stadium.
The Wallabies held on for a 1610 win over the Pumas, conceding a late try to have a few nervous moments before the final whistle despite a largely dominant performance.
It was a stark turnaround from last week’s sloppy showing against the Springboks in South Africa and one they need to improve on again if they are a chance to compete with the All Blacks, who played out a 16-16 draw with South Africa in Wellington as the Wallabies prepared to take the field.
But Cheika believes his players are more than capable of making the leap.
“(We’ll take) as big a step as we want to take,” he said.
“It’s up to us. It’s (going to be) the step that we’re prepared to take. “We’re prepared to go up another, I don’t know how many levels it might take, but whatever it is, it’s about whether we want to take a step up and whether we will take a step up to go and compete there.” Captain Michael Hooper said the victory was a reward for players and staff after a torrid period.
“These guys - staff as well - we’ve all been putting in big shifts and you just need a little bit of a pat on the back sometimes in the form of a win to show what you can do
and paint a bit of a picture of what your week looks like to add to that result,” Hooper said.
“We’ll be looking to add to that and get better. I think we’ve got so much more to grow on and off the field.”
Cheika said the win had been important for the 31,559 fans that had turned out to Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night, the biggest crowd for an Argentina Test in Australia outside the World Cup.
He expected the same level of support for the sold out Bledisloe clash in Perth, where the Wallabies will balance the need to build momentum with just three Tests remaining before their first World Cup fixture, with the need to continue to audition players.
That call will be made by the selection panel but Cheika said any player in the 23 would be “ready to go” against New Zealand. “What I’m seeing in the way that the guys are going about their business is you had a lot of guys play their first game tonight and saw that they were very committed in what they brought, there was no lack of effort on the field,” he said.
“I think anyone that comes in, whether they’ve played games or they haven’t, they’ll be ready to go and try to build on that momentum. We know how difficult that task will be but I really believe in these players.
“Just the environment they’re creating at the moment amongst themselves - nothing to do with us - will help them down the line to achieve bigger things than they thought they could earlier on in the year.”