Suspensions new blight on woeful year for Wallabies
Rugby Australia chief executive Raelene Castle says she ‘‘100 per cent’’ supports the one-match bans handed down to Wallabies Kurtley Beale and Adam Ashley-Cooper after the pair breached team protocols by bringing three women back to their hotel after Australia’s loss to Wales a fortnight ago.
Coach Michael Cheika said it was brought to his attention on Tuesday this week – by captain Michael Hooper and a leadership group – that Beale and AshleyCooper brought three women, one of whom was the latter’s sister-inlaw, to the team hotel for room service and a few casual drinks.
Cheika said he immediately contacted Castle and informed her of his plan to exclude the duo, who between them boast 200 tests of experience, from selection for the England match at Twickenham.
Castle said she was happy with the process followed and supported the call.
‘‘The team has got standards, they put those standards in place for a reason and the two boys have breached those standards,’’ Castle said. ‘‘I support them in that stance 100 per cent.’’
Castle refuted the suggestion there was a cultural issue in the playing group and played down what actually happened, saying it was a misunderstanding on the pair’s part.
Team rules state players are not allowed to have any guests in their room.
‘‘This is a situation where two boys brought some friends and family back into their hotel without thinking of the implications of that, because they were friends and family,’’ Castle said.
‘‘Once it was pointed out to them that the rule was there for a reason, they recognised that they had erred and they accepted the team and Michael’s position.
‘‘They’ve taken that as senior players as you’d expect them to and they support the team rules that are in place.’’
As captain, Hooper was part of a leadership group that told Cheika what occurred and Castle tipped her hat to the back-rower for orchestrating a line-in-the-sand moment for a team keen on enforcing strict behavioural standards.
‘‘The alternative is that they realise they could have just brushed it under the carpet and no one would have been any the wiser but that’s often when the creaks start,’’ Castle said. ‘‘You’ve got rules in place, you’ve got a line in the sand and that’s the line in the sand that Michael has used and you’ve got to live by it.’’
The saga caps a forgettable year for Australian rugby, regardless of the result of the England match at Twickenham overnight.
Before that fixture, Australia had won four of their last 14 tests and there has been no shortage of pressure on Cheika and his assistants.
Castle continues to stick by the coaching staff but will commission a review into the Wallabies’ underwhelming performances to ascertain whether change is needed.
There is a view that if the Wallabies fail to perform to expectations at next year’s World Cup, given the writing has been on the wall since 2016, the RA board should be held completely to account.
Castle was asked whether this would be the case and stated, ‘‘we’re all together in this’’.
‘‘We all have to stand shoulderto-shoulder,’’ Castle said.
‘‘We believe that we’ve got a head coach who’s experienced, that’s led a party through a World Cup before and one of his biggest strengths is going into a campaigntype environment where he’ll get the boys offshore. He’ll actually have them consistently for about eight to 10 weeks where they’ll be able to build that momentum inside the environment and lead into a World Cup.
‘‘There’s no doubt we have got a review to do and we need to look under every cover and make sure we’ve identified the things that aren’t working. Ultimately we’re there because we believe that we can be successful at the WorldCup.’’
Castle suggested changes could be on the cards, meaning assistant coaches Stephen Larkham, Simon Raiwalui, Mick Byrne and Nathan Grey could be in the firing line.
‘‘There’s a greater level of curiosity with this [review] because we’re going into a World Cup. You [would] only get nine months of change or nine months to make any changes.’’