Cheika unimpressed by ‘clown’ attack on Jones
LONDON: Australia coach Michael Cheika said a newspaper had gone too far in depicting England counterpart Eddie Jones as a ‘clown’ ahead of Saturday’s clash at Twickenham.
The former team-mates at Sydney club Randwick have enjoyed plenty of pre-match verbal sparring, each questioning the legality of the other side’s scrum.
The hype intensified when Jones was depicted as a clown in Saturday’s edition of The Australian newspaper.
That followed a cartoon showing Cheika as an angry clown that appeared in The New Zealand Herald newspaper in October under the banner “Send in the Clowns”.
But The Australian said: “Forget Michael Cheika. Eddie Jones is the real clown of the world rugby circus.
“Jones is a master of using black comedy to belittle his adversaries and no one has been the victim of his invective more than Cheika, who in turn has looked bemused and besieged.”
But Cheika, speaking Friday, was unimpressed by the newspaper’s clown attack.
“Do I think that’s funny? I don’t think that’s funny I think that’s poor form myself,” he said.
Cheika made no secret of his feelings about his clown portrait after New Zealand’s 37-10 win over Australia in Auckland in October saw the world champions set a new record of 18 consecutive Test wins by a leading rugby union nation.
“They dressed us up as clowns today. They put our crest on it, so they wouldn’t want our comment,” Cheika said when asked for his view on the All Blacks’ record-breaking achievement.
“I don’t think they respect our comment, anyway, so we won’t make one.”