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The Waratahs, who were the defending Super Rugby champions, crashed out of the tournament on Saturday night with a 35-17 semi final loss to the Highlanders, and according to many fans it was coach Michael Cheika’s fault.
The catch-cry has been that “he had no plan b”.
If Cheika had 26 plans from A-to-Z, the Waratahs side that took the field at Allianz Stadium still would have lost.
They left the Cheika way in the shed.
While Cheika was locked in the coaches box, tearing his hair out by the roots, he wasn’t the one who ignored the basic fundamentals.
It was his champion Waratahs side.
Cheika didn’t pass to no-one, he didn’t drop good balls, he didn’t lose good possession, he didn’t miss first time tackles, nor did he take obviously poor options.
But his troops did all of that, and did it often.
Cheika gave them the game plan and the ammunition to fire, but it was up to his troops to pull the trigger.
However, they fired blanks.
Let’s start from the top.
The Waratah pack are bristled with internationals, all eight of them with 296 Wallaby caps and three Springbok caps for Jacqes Potgieter.
All up that’s 299 Test caps.
How many All Black caps in the Highlanders’ pack?
Nil, zero, zip, none – just eight Maori All Black caps.
So how on earth did the Higlanders’ pack dominate the Waratahs?
Simply, they had the passion and dedication of their coach Jamie Joseph, while the Waratahs played as though the semi was a piece of cake.
To make matters worse, the Waratah pack weighed in at 927 kilograms. The Highlanders weighed in at 898 kilograms.
So how did the Highlanders push the home side all over the park?
It was much the same story among the backs.
Only two Waratahs haven’t played for the Wallabies, injured Kurtley Beale’s replacement Matt Carraro and winger Taqele Naiyaravoro.
While the Highlanders had only three All Black backs – half Aaron Smith, outside centre Malakai Fekitoa, and skipper-fullback Ben Smith.
The Waratah backs have 204 Wallaby caps. All Black caps among the Highlander backs are a mere 85.
In total, the Waratahs have 503 Wallaby caps and the Highlanders have 85 All Black Caps.
On those facts, one would be forgiven for thinking it would be one-way traffic Waratahs, which may well have been what the men in blue thought because there was precious little input from so much international talent.
Now Cheika has to mould a Wallaby squad into a genuine Rugby Championship and World Cup contender.
Meanwhile, the Waratah contingent will be hurting with embarrassment after that loss.
That’s good, someone has to pay the price for last Saturday night, and the only ones to blame are the Waratahs.
Certainly not Michael Ckeika.