Cheika defends make-up of his Australian squad

COACH Michael Cheika says the fact one-third of the Wallabies team were born overseas is a healthy sign of multiculturalism at work.

World Rugby vice-chairman and former Argentinian halfback Agustin Pichot posted a controversial tweet this week outlining the number of foreign-born players in each nation (Australia has 29 per cent, Argentina none).

“What it means to me – I’m not sure about Argentina – but in Australia we are a multicultural country,” Cheika said as he prepared the Wallabies to take on England early tomorrow morning.

“It runs alongside the indigenous heritage how we’ve also got a lot of immigrant people who come to our country to get a better life for their kids.

“If those kids grow up and play for Australia, that shows a little bit about what we’re doing down there.

“I’m proud of the fact we have players from Fijian heritage; from Tongan heritage; from Samoan heritage; from Zimbabwean heritage; from South Africa, guys who have come and played; English heritage. Because at the end of the day, we’re all imports down there. We are.”

Cheika was more concerned about the fitness of David Pocock has suffered problems with his neck all year, despite World Rugby boss Brett Gosper saying the back-rower wasn’t being targeted by neck rolls.

Pocock has been named to play England despite being unable to train all week, after suffering a neck injury against Italy last Saturday.

World Rugby say they are clamping down on neck rolls, in which players remove rivals from rucks by pulling or twisting the head/neck area, yet Pocock continually suffers injury in that area in contests.

“People definitely target him. I can’t say illegally because they’ll get penalised if it’s illegal,” Cheika said.

“But he certainly takes some punishment in there.”