Cheika: There’s no use being a sook about it
Wallabies coach Michael Cheika is digging in despite another test loss leaving his side on the brink of some unwanted Rugby Championship history.
Australia’s 23-12 toppling in South Africa yesterday brought the tally to eight defeats from the side’s last 10 tests.
A contest at altitude in Salta against an in-form Argentina awaits next weekend before the third Bledisloe in Japan and a tough end-of-year tour.
They’ll head to South America hoping to avoid their first-ever wooden spoon since the Rugby Championship’s 2012 inception and worst-ever result in a southern hemisphere competition.
With one game to play, the Wallabies sit with a single win and four losses and a points difference of minus 63.
Three times, in 1996, 1997 and 2009, they brought up the Tri Nations tail but they had better points differentials to go with their sole wins in those years.
Australia have sunk to a record-low No 7 in this current trot, but Cheika is sure he’s the man to bring out the best in the misfiring squad.
‘‘No-one wants to win more than me, trust me,’’ Cheika said.
‘‘Tough situations come, then they go away and the tough people will stay. If you want, you can cry about it and sook, or get on with getting improvements.
Australia’s defence was more stoic than on the Gold Coast when Los Pumas ran right through them, but they again lacked the finishing touch in attack and were again sloppy with their lineouts. Kurtley Beale’s 24thsecond intercept pass just metres out from his own line didn’t help, but the Wallabies managed to recover from 14-0 down to trail
14-12 after 30 minutes and have all the running in the second half.
Captain Michael Hooper said, ‘‘I’m gutted we couldn’t get the result, but clear on the things we did well . . .