‘Cheats’– Cheika rages over disallowed try
A spate of controversial refereeing decisions against the Wallabies saw coach Michael Cheika lose his cool and England continue their dominance over Australia since the Rugby World Cup, with Eddie Jones’ men chalking up a 30-6 win at Twickenham yesterday.
This was a test that had all the spite and bitterness you would expect, and it got even spicier when a number of close calls went against the Australians at critical moments.
Cheika was picked up on the TV broadcast blowing up and the consensus was that he appeared to call someone on the field ‘‘f ...... cheats’’ after a 27th-minute no-try decision by Irish TMO Simon McDowell went against captain Michael Hooper for being offside.
Tevita Kuridrani put a kick through which Marika Koroibete sprinted towards. It appeared Koroibete got a feather of a kick on the ball before Hooper picked it up and scored. However, the referees could not award the try because Hooper was in front of Kuridrani when the first kick went through.
Cheika then bristled big-time when quizzed about his actions in a post-match TV interview. Initially, when asked what he’d said by the English female presenter, he denied any profanity.
‘‘Not at all, no. I never said that, what are you talking about? Is that what it’s coming down to?’’ was the coach’s response.
But then, when the presenter suggested that it was best to ask him about the incident, Cheika tried to evade the controversy, then even indicated he may have sworn after all.
‘‘I’m trying to have an interview, without getting stuck into that, and you want to try to keep making it ... don’t say you’re not. Have the respect for me, to say ‘I am doing that’, at least.
‘‘Maybe I could have said something, maybe I did swear, I don’t know, it happens sometimes in life, I’m sure you have as well, maybe the TV camera wasn’t on you at the time.’’
And as he uttered those words, Cheika walked off.
Earlier this week, Jones apologised for being caught swearing during last weekend’s Argentina game, and no doubt Cheika will receive a call from World Rugby about what the TV cameras picked up.
It was a busy day for McDowell and Kiwi referee Ben O’Keeffe, who sin-binned Hooper later in the first half, and then also fullback Kurtley Beale before halftime.
England scored a crucial fivepointer in the 56th minute, courtesy of Elliot Dal,y but a touch and go call on whether the ball had flicked the sideline had the crowd divided.
The Wallabies certainly thought so, and on the evidence provided by replays, it looked clear that a part of the ball had scraped the line.
But O’Keeffe awarded England the try and ultimately a 13-3 advantage heading into the final 20 minutes.
A Bernard Foley penalty brought the margin back to seven points with 16 minutes remaining but it was a disallowed try to Marika Koroibete that had Cheika so outraged that he got out of his coach’s box and marched down to the field.
Koroibete, with ball in hand, dived over the line and many onlookers felt he had grounded the ball on the second attempt even if there was no conclusive evidence from replays.
After what seemed like an eternity, the referees came to the conclusion Chris Robshaw was impeded trying to make a tackle, and therefore they disallowed the try.
Three tries to Jonathan Joseph, Jonny May and Danny Care respectively in the last eight minutes blew the margin out to 24 points in result that sees England record their fifth consecutive win over the Wallabies in the past two years.
Jones, once again, got one over his old mate Cheika, and under him England have now won 21 games from 22 outings.