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With his Grand Slam dream dashed, Michael Cheika reverted to petulant type and wallowed in the blame game in Dublin at the weekend.
The charm and grace that largely typified the Wallaby coach’s demeanour throughout a gruelling European Tour suddenly deserted him when confronting his first loss to the hands of the brave and gallant Irish.
Referee Jerome Garces’ lopsided penalty count against the Wallabies made it “impossible” for the Australians to win, according to Cheika, who promised to take the matter up with World Rugby referees’ chief Alain Rolland in the post-match presser.
”I thought we played a lot of footy, but we got penalised a lot, didn’t we,” Cheka said.
“It’s something I will be dealing with Alain Rolland afterwards. He is the referee’s boss so I’ll go through the proper channels as opposed to making it an issue out here.”
Although he wasn’t hopeful of a resolution.
”And let’s see if we can get something out of it – but I doubt it.
“A 13-3 penalty count costs you field position, territory and then obviously points as well.
“You can’t win a Test match giving away that many penalties or [having] that big a difference between the two teams. [It is] impossible.”
The outburst is true to form of Cheika’s recent reactions to losses, typified by the near state of apoplexy he whipped himself into following ‘clowngate’ in Bledisloe three at Eden Park last month.
There he somehow conflated the New Zealand Herald‘s dressing him up as a clown on the morning of the match with the All Blacks disrespecting the Wallabies.
Discipline starts from the top, so maybe Cheika should be asking deeper questions and looking much closer to home when trying to fathom why his team was so badly on the receiving end of the ref’s whistle.
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The coach’s inability to rein himself in during post-match press conferences could be more than symptomatic of his team’s ill-discipline and may actually be part of a malaise that’s causing it.
Either way it’s not a good look.
Once he got the initial angst of his chest, Cheika actually settled into a more considered position that suggested the repeated infringing was an issue the Wallabies needed to address.
“We want to play good footy, we’ve just got to play it for longer and after this game we’ve got to try and be more disciplined because that spread of penalties is that large you can’t win a game with that,” he said.
Eventually he congratulated the Irish on their win.
One of the most-discussed decisions was Ireland’s second try to Garry Ringrose in the 34th minute that had the Aussies crying foul that Ireland lock Devin Toner obstructed his Wallabies counterpart Rory Arnold, – although the referee awarded it after reviewing the vision, a non-decision Cheika said showed up some inconsistencies.
Reviewing the footage it clearly shows the right call was made. Toner was merely standing his ground and does not intentionally disrupt Arnold who was simply too slow to react to stop Ringrose, as were up to three other Wallaby defenders.
When quizzed abut it, Cheika drew reference to David Pocock being man-handled many metres away as somehow having an impact:
“I didn’t really get a look at it. It’s all about consistency of the application of the laws. Pocock was taken out about 10 metres beyond the maul.
“That’s something that we would have got penalised for against New Zealand a few weeks ago.”
Whatever Michael.
Sure, Garces’ was a less than perfect refereeing performance. No doubt the Wallabies had some harsh calls go against them, but he appeared to get all the big ones right, including the two yellow cards against Dean Mumm and Bernard Foley for ‘tipping’ players beyond the horizontal.
Mumm’s especially was technically inarguable while Foley’s was so late in the piece it was inconsequential.
The All Blacks racked up similar disproportionate penalty counts against Ireland in both their Tests. Maybe this Irish outfit is as clean and disciplined as the mounting evidence would suggest?
The reality is Ireland were well and truly there for the taking had the Wallabies been more ruthless, clinical and, yes, disciplined at the weekend.
With mere seconds left of the first half the visitors were 17-0 down, having been subjected to a virtual shut out of territory (73% to Ireland) and possession (70% to Ireland) since kick off.
Then Dane Haylett-Petty, one of the Wallabies’ best, broke into the clear to score under the black dot, conversion to Foley, and the sheds at half time were suddenly a more palatable place for the Aussies.
The Wallaby resurgence continued full steam ahead after the break. The men in gold looked to have finally found their mojo, hanging onto ball with quick recycles and an attack that was suddenly crisp and clean. Henry Speight was over three minutes after the resumption, but was correctly pulled back for a forward pass.
Three minutes later Tevita Kurundrani was in for a legitimate five-pointer to continue his hot try-scoring form. Replacement winger Sefanaia Naivalu had the Wallabies’ third try and an unlikely 21-20 lead in the 57th minute. There would have been another six minutes prior to that had Israel Folau not butchered a three-on-one overlap.
At this point I thought the Wallabies were simply going to run over the top of a visibly tiring and broken Ireland in an All Blackesque final quarter blitz.
Already without their talismanic back Johnny Sexton, forward Sean O’Brien (a late injury withdrawal) and the impressive Robbie Henshaw, Ireland had long lost game-breaking fullback Rob Kearney and wing Andrew Trimble, off injured in the first half an hour.
Centre Jared Payne failed to emerge after the break, forcing replacement halfback Kieran Marmion to the wing and third-string fly half Joey Carbery to fullback.
The Ireland backline was hanging together by a bit of glue and some string and looked set to be cut to pieces by the Aussies, but it wasn’t to be.
With the chocolates in sight, the Wallabies inexplicably eased back on the throttle and their forwards went back into their shells, allowing the obdurate Irish to drag themselves off the canvas and back into the lead with a Keith Earls’ try with 15 to go. A huge-hearted defensive effort was enough for them to get, exhausted, over the line.
It really was heroic stuff, demonstrating this Ireland team, having already conquered the Southern Hemisphere’s big three this year, could be on the cusp of something quite special.
For the Wallabies, more lessons and a real examination of character as to how they will front against the equally resurgent Poms with no Grand Slam on the line this weekend.
Will wiping the smirk off Eddie Jones’ face be motivation enough?
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.