Wallabies have to stand up to England’s bullying
Will knows he’s a target for niggle
RUGBY UNION: England’s bully-boys will push the legal limits to target Will Genia with their niggle and late grappling at Twickenham where the new no-excuses culture of the Wallabies must shine to protect their matchwinner.
Wallabies coach Michael Cheika warned there would be no victory unless the Wallabies hurled their own physical statement back at England to protect halves Genia and Bernard Foley from the intimidation aimed at them early tomorrow morning (AEDT).
This was no lame plea for help from Kiwi referee Ben O’Keeffe, but Cheika publicly challenging his troops to rise against English tactics far older than the two-year reign of coaching adversary Eddie Jones.
“They are a very big, powerful team and they’ll try to bully us around and wait for us to crack,” Cheika said.
“That’s traditionally how the games have gone ... try to bully us at the scrum, the line-out, the rucks and, with the niggle, try to get into our halfback (Genia) after he passes and the No.10 (Foley) after he passes.
“There is so much footage of that ... and if you get away with it, it’s legal isn’t it?”
The Chris Robshaw neck lock on Nick Phipps in Melbourne and forcing the then-halfback into a messy shovel pass when a try was conceded in Sydney were typical of the tactics paying off in the ugly 3-0 series loss to England last year.
Training spectator George Gregan agreed a fresh onslaught was coming but backed Genia.
“They’ll disrupt and try to take the rhythm out of the Wallabies’ attack but I’ve not seen Will healthier for a long time and he’s got his spark,” Gregan said.
The Wallabies’ style of flat passing in the face of the defence puts creators like Genia, Foley and Kurtley Beale in the firing line for a whack, but Cheika said his remodelled squad had the
resilience to cope.
“Since the (2015) World Cup we’ve been building a no-excuse culture because you can’t let things like that get you rattled or complain,” Cheika said.
“You get up off the floor and get to the next thing because not having resilience is a big symptom of an excuse culture.”
After the 4-0 “Cheik-mate” of the Wallabies last year, Jones is hoping that is worth something psychologically when the tension of this blockbuster rises.
“When the game gets tighter, their memory will go back to those previous games, so that’s an advantage for us ... that itch
in the back of their head,” Jones said.
Having enforcer Adam Coleman (thumb) prove he is fit to throw some heat back at England was yesterday’s big lift for the Wallabies, while the way winger Marika Koroibete burnt Henry Speight on the outside for a 50m training try needs to be indicative of the sharpness of the attack at game-time.
Genia is not fussed by being targeted, again, as he steps up for another of the Australia-England stoushes that mean so much to him.
They have ever since Jonny Wilkinson “broke my heart” in 2003 when a schoolboy Genia was at Brisbane Boys’ College watching the England five-eighth’s late field goal sink the Wallabies in the World Cup final thriller.
Jones bristled at any inference of dirty play, but his 120kg-plus steamrollers Mako Vunipola, Joe Launchbury and Nathan Hughes will force plenty of tackling from the Wallabies.
“We’ll get stuck into Australia. There’s no choice now they are back on the front foot in international rugby ,” Jones said.
England has won its past 11 Tests at Twickenham but the ground is not so daunting for the Wallabies since they virtually called it home during the 2015 World Cup.