Wallabies coach prepared to take flak

– Wallabies coach Michael Cheika has insisted he will be proud of his team “wherever the cards fall” at the Rugby World Cup after Rugby Australia chief executive Raelene Castle raised the stakes by saying she expected them to reach the final.

Cheika took Australia all the way to the final of the 2015 edition in England before they lost to New Zealand at Twickenham.

Australia’s victory over New Zealand in Perth last month has raised hopes they can go one better in Japan and add to their 1991 and 1999 World Cup titles.

Despite New Zealand turning the tables to beat Australia in emphatic fashion a week later in Auckland, Castle said she was confident the Wallabies could at least match their feat from four years ago.

“When your previous performance was a World Cup final, that is everyone’s expectation,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald in comments published yesterday, despite mixed fortunes so far this year for the Wallabies, who have won three and lost two of their five Tests to date in 2019. But when Cheika was asked by

AFP in Sapporo yesterday if Castle’s remarks had created extra pressure for him and the team, replied: “You should know me well enough by now that there’s not much pressure that I cannot handle.

“I love what I do and am prepared to take responsibility and accountability, always have been for everything I do,” he added, after announcing his team to play Fiji in their opening game in Sapporo tomorrow. –