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Michael Cheika is keeping full faith in his World Cup vision despite a rocky start to his tenure as Wallabies coach.
After being thrust into the role less than a week before the spring tour, Cheika faces the prospect of overseeing Australia’s worst European campaign since the 2005 tour that led to former coach Eddie Jones’ sacking.
Cheika insists nobody hates losing more than him and he’s confident Australia can bounce back from successive defeats to Ireland and France in this weekend’s tour finale against England at Twickenham.
But the Waratahs coach says results won’t alter his belief in the game plan and team culture he’s had little time to implement.
“The reality is I had three days to come in and get sorted,” said Cheika, whose appointment followed Ewen McKenzie’s dramatic resignation.
“And I’m not looking for excuses but you look at any turnaround in changing teams both player-wise and culturally, it takes a bit of time.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to have patience and belief.
“I believe this is the way we can be successful and the reality is we’ve lost these two games but we’re not a long way away. We’re not getting hammered or anything.”
Cheika is no stranger to coming in for criticism early in a coaching stint.
His success with the Waratahs and Irish side Leinster took time to build and while he admits he faces a new set of challenges at international level, he believes the Australian public will warm to a team with a clear focus.
“I’ve been there before when people are throwing eggs and you just have to hold your nerve,” he said.
“Follow what you believe and keep driving and eventually people respect that.
“It’s a bit different here because it’s much shorter and we’ve got to try and get it together for the World Cup.
“We’re not going to be together all the time so we’re going to have to be relatively creative around how we do that.
“We’re going to have to work hard in the Super Rugby period in what we deliver to players and how we get that message across so we can keep building things in the background.”
Cheika will monitor the fitness of Tevita Kuridrani (ankle) and hooker Saia Fainga’a (quad) in the coming days after both were injured in Saturday’s 26-23 loss to Ireland.
The coach suggested inside centre Matt Toomua had done enough to secure a starting spot for the England clash after he was one of Australia’s best against Ireland in his first Test start of the tour.
Fijian-born winger Henry Speight also impressed on debut and is pushing for a place against England while Cheika has signalled a possible return for rising backrower Sean McMahon.
Waratahs halves Bernard Foley and Nick Phipps appear to have done enough to repel selection pressure from Reds veterans Quade Cooper and Will Genia.
Australia are trying to avoid losing three games on a spring tour for the first time since 2005.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.