Wallabies fall to Ireland in Grand Slam attempt

AUSTRALIA coach Michael Cheika says the Wallabies will rebound after getting over the hurt of Ireland dashing their dreams of emulating the 1984 side in a Grand Slam sweep of the Home Nations.

The 49-year-old – who had guided the team to wins over Wales and Scotland as well as France – admitted it had been frustrating to see his side come back from 17-0 down to lead after an hour and then lose 27-24 in a thrilling encounter.

“It is a very tough result,” said Cheika, who has lost both encounters with Ireland since he took over the reins in 2014.

“We’ll be hurting a lot tonight [Saturday] but then we’ll dust ourselves off for next week.”

The Australians round off their tour against England, who whipped them 3-0 in an historic series victory Down Under earlier this year.

“You take disappointment forward with you. Okay that hurt but it’s not going to happen again. We can’t cry about it now it’s over,” Cheika said.

Cheika, who had a successful spell coaching Irish province Leinster to the 2009 European Cup trophy, admitted it had been frustrating watching his side fight back after an awful first-half display but fail to finish off the Irish, who were a patchwork side by the end of the contest with several players playing out of position.

“We conceded two silly tries in the first half, allowing the ball to bounce for the first one and then having a huge big hole in our defence for the second one.

“In the second half we had them on the back foot and I don’t know what happened to our defence but they got a third try.

“I was really pleased with the way we came back but we have to be much more disciplined – you can’t win matches like that.”

Cheika, who when he guided the Waratahs to the 2014 Super Rugby title became the first coach to win the major northern and southern hemisphere continental trophies, appeared far from happy with referee Jerome Garces awarding 13 penalties against his side.

“Those penalties cost us territory and points and you can’t win a Test match giving those away.

“Refereeing decisions are all about consistency and it is something I will deal with Alain Rolland [World Rugby’s head of refereeing] about and go through the proper channels. I can’t talk about those now; I’d love to but we’re not allowed to.”

Cheika, voted as world coach of the year in 2015 after taking over a demoralised Wallabies outfit in 2014 and turning them into World Cup finalists, said they couldn’t afford to play one half of good rugby.

“We did that against Scotland and got away with it, but Ireland are a different order.” — AFP