Wallabies’ Cheika hits out after NZ rout

auckland — Bitter Wallabies’ coach Michael Cheika refused to congratulate the All Blacks on their world record number of wins Saturday after New Zealand thumped Australia 37-10 in Auckland.

In the historic victory, the All Blacks achieved what no other tier-one side has done with their 18th win in a row.

But in an extraordinary press conference afterwards, Cheika claimed he was not respected by the All Blacks and suggested New Zealand had linked the Wallabies to an attempt to bug All Blacks team meetings in Sydney earlier this year.

He also said the Wallabies had not been invited to socialise with the All Blacks after the match and took offence at being portrayed as a clown in a New Zealand newspaper cartoon.

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen opened his press conference congratulating Australia for dominating much of the game saying “it was a really tough game, just the sort of game if you’re going to break a record you’d want so you could be proud of the record.”

When told of Cheika’s complaints he dismissed them as “rubbish” and said “you’ve got to be bigger than that.”

Cheika was also angry that a try by Henry Speight, which would have levelled the score at 15-15 in the second half, was disallowed but said it was “reckless turnovers” rather than a lost try that cost them the game.

He then opened up when asked to comment on the All Blacks record.

“I don’t think they’d respect our comment anyway so we won’t make one ... they dressed us up as clowns,” he said.

He then linked the newspaper cartoon directly to the All Blacks saying “it’s the same guy that reported the supposed bug as well, where did that come from, you know what I mean.”

“I would say they got me a little offside with accusations that we tried to bug them. Like, really? “They don’t need to do that stuff, they’re too good anyway.”

I don’t think they’d respect our comment anyway so we won’t make one ... they dressed us up as clowns Michael Cheika