Well yet still being thrashed

have an erratic nature, and a coach with a wild temperament can’t be helping.

Of the Sanzaar nations, Argentina has become an interesting prospect but I don’t see South Africa challenging the All Blacks for a long time — their corruption-soaked country can’t break free of its tragic past. South Africa is in trouble, their rugby is in trouble.

Australia has talent but it needs a strategic coach, and, on the surface, Cheika is too much the wild gunslinger with a cabal of former Wallabies eager to join him in a dusty main street, six shooters drawn, tumbleweed everywhere. Rod Kafer — a great strategist in his day with the Brumbies — and his mates can shout all they like, but the scoreboard keeps ticking over.

And so does the All Blacks’ war machine. Damian McKenzie, Rieko Ioane, Jordie Barrett — the production line of gamebreakers is scary, the way they are introduced to test rugby apparently fail-safe.

The transtasman rugby conflict is very tasty and, as a student of newspaper attacks, Cheika will remember Richie McCaw was labelled a grub during the last World Cup.

McCaw had plenty to react to in his career, and never did.

He would use anything he could to silently harden the resolve and concentrate on his tasks. He was a disaster for the media, and a godsend for the All Blacks.

It’s a lesson for these Wallabies. They can be good, but they weren’t good enough. Not even close.