Scary Cheika will be hurt more by his team competing

Here’s what will really be bugging angry Michael Cheika.

How the heck did Steve Hansen predict with such certainty Cheika’s left-field selection in the Wallaby midfield for the Eden Park test?

Either Hansen can read Cheika’s mind or — impossible as it sounds — the All Blacks have a spy close to the Aussie camp. Neither of these things are nice for Cheika to contemplate.

Hansen had already pinned Cheika to the ropes, opining that England coach Eddie Jones won the mind games during this year’s tour of Australia. Cheika, an overtly alpha male, was told he had been bullied. He would have felt bullied again.

Now Hansen has delivered a knockout blow, predicting the selection before the Wallabies had even got to Auckland. Cheika is so easy to wind up. This time, he has something worth getting wound up about. Cheika tried to join the mind games by delaying his selection announcement, yet the All Blacks coach picked the big move in one, that rookie Reece Hodge would shift from the wing for his first start in the No 12 jersey and replace Quade Cooper in a regigged backline.

Cheika is so security conscious, he holds ultra-secret training sessions on a need-to-know basis. But something went horribly wrong this time.

The red clown’s nose is a red herring. Cheika is deflecting attention away from another onfield disaster.

It’s easy for Hansen to win the mind games now because he has the firepower, a team that can win even when it plays badly by its own standards, as occurred at Eden Park.

The All Blacks were often poor yet won by 27 points over last year’s World Cup finalists. This can’t be put down to bad luck or bad refereeing decisions.

Cheika made a big play about how angry he was at being portrayed as a clown in the Weekend Herald. But watching his side compete well, yet get thrashed, will hurt a lot more.

The red clown’s nose is a red herring. Cheika is deflecting attention away from another on-field disaster. Even if you believe the Australians were robbed of a fair try that could have given them a small lead, it doesn’t explain the later capitulation.

Put it this way: if the All Blacks were robbed of a try — and of course some in world rugby claim this never happens — they would have upped the ante, got more desperate, found another gear. Australia faded in the final stretch.

Australia’s squad offers decent hope, particularly if Bernard Foley can pull the strings the way he did so expertly at Eden Park. But they do