Meltdown far from Cheika’s mind
WALLABIES coach Michael Cheika faces perhaps the biggest challenge of his career in Saturday’s Rugby Championship clash against New Zealand in Wellington, a week after his side were humiliated by the same opposition in Sydney.
Cheika earned praise for winning last year’s tournament and leading Australia to the 2015 World Cup final just 12 months after taking over a disorganised unit, but a 3-0 home series loss to England in June signalled the end of his honeymoon period.
The slump continued when last week’s 42-8 mauling by a rampant All Blacks handed Cheika – a fourth consecutive home defeat – and the 49-year-old offered a frank assessment of the task ahead when asked where it ranked in his coaching career.
“Probably the biggest. It’s a big stage and it’s a big challenge for us,” Cheika said yesterday.
“The criticism from the performance (last weekend) is very warranted, no doubt about that, and when there’s a lot of that talk in your head you start to get weighed down by it.
“The players are feeling pretty terrible about it, so we’ve got to get them back up into a situation where that’s driving them to do something better this weekend.”
Cheika dismissed criticism of his selection of veteran backs Will Genia, Matt Giteau and Adam AshleyCooper, brought back from France under the Giteau rule, which he introduced ahead of the World Cup to add vital experience to his squad.
“I thought Will Genia was one of the players who did stand up in that game,” Cheika added.
“It hasn’t gone this year how we wanted it to, but we’re not going to go and cry with our thumb in our mouth back to mommy.
“We’re going to get in there and fight and get ourselves sorted out and that may be enough. It may not be. But that’s what we’re definitely going to do this weekend.”
Cheika will also need to address his options at inside centre following the loss through injuries of Giteau, Matt Toomua and Rob Horne last weekend.
Despite their thumping win over Australia, the world champions are bracing for a tough encounter against a wounded Wallabies side determined to salvage their pride on Saturday.
“We just need to put ourselves in their shoes and think about what we would be doing and the edge and intensity we would have at training,” All Blacks loose-forward Jerome Kaino said.
“They have had a lot of injuries but even when you look at the guys who didn’t play, they have got a lot of class there.
“I know if that was us, we would be doing everything possible to play a lot better and get a win and that is what we are expecting,” said Kaino.
Australia must win to retain any hope of winning back the Bledisloe Cup for the first time since 2003 but Wallabies back-rower, David Pocock, has seen little from the newlook All Blacks to suggest they are inferior to last year’s World Cup winners.
“It’s an Pocock.
“You look at guys like Beauden Barrett and the depth that they have in flyhalf, halfback, across the field really, New Zealand is in a really strong position in terms of their depth and you see that with their Super Rugby teams.
“There’s no surprises that they’ve kicked on from last year on the back of the World Cup.”
Criticised in the past for following up brilliant performances with mediocre ones, Kaino believes the All Blacks have plenty of motivation to put in a performance at Wellington to match last week’s brilliance in Sydney.
“It is all about attitude and mindset,” he said.” — Reuters incredible side,” said