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What a sensational weekend for milestones chalked up by Western Sydney Wanderers coach Tony Popovic, Wallabies coach Michael Cheika, and Tim Sheens, the Kangaroos’ coach.
Three meaningful victories.
No Australian football club had ever won the Asian Champions League, but Popovic did. Cheika opened his Wallaby account with an exciting 40-36 win over the Barbarians at Twickenham.
And Tim Sheens, who celebrated his 64th birthday last week, must have had second thoughts about beating England in Melbourne when the visitors led 12-4 at the break. The Kangaroos hadn’t missed the final of a major tournament for 60 years, defeat would mean another miss.
But his Roos came good to clinch a sensational weekend in credit across the board.
For Popovic, it was his crowning glory as head coach of a club that was only launched 31 months ago.
In that time WSW won the A-League premiership in 2012-13, and are now the best team in Asia following their 1-0 win over Al-Hilal at Parramatta Stadium, and the 0-0 draw on the return leg in Abu Dhabi.
Goalkeeper Ante Covic was named man of the tournament with three magnificent saves in the final that reminded Socceroos fans of the great custodian Mark Schwarzer.
They silenced a parochrial 65,000 crowd, with only 14 of their own supporters who made the trip. Covic overcame a barrage of lasers aimed at his eyes, and after the final whistle, a disgraceful display of poor sportsmanship from a handful of the Al-Halil players.
“We were called a small club by the local media, now we are Kings of Asia,” was Popovic’s subtle sledge.
As if the club hasn’t traveled enough lately, their next two A-League games are in Wellington and Perth. But they won’t be feeling any pain.
For Michael Cheika on debut, his Wallabies’ six tries to five performance had many pluses, but as many minuses. The biggest plus was Rebels backrower Sean McMahon who won’t be wearing Wallaby jumper 20 for long. What a debut, and at the home of rugby.
The 20-year-old came on when Scott Higginbotham was forced off the field with what looked like a hamstring injury, and McMahon grabbed the chance with both hands to turn in a blinder, scoring a try, running strongly with every touch and defending with interest.
Halfback Will Genia is back, and even though he is still short of game time, and therefore a bit rusty, that won’t take long to fix. And outside centre Tevita Kuridrani will be the 13 for every game, he had another blinder.
But the minuses?
Too slow to the breakdown, the lineout was sloppy, there were too many defensive lapses and too many passes went astray. But Cheika can be plased with one major aspect, the Wallabies didn’t give the lead away in the last 10 minutes as they did in their last three internationals against the Boks, Pumas and All Blacks.
But taking the 80 minutes overall, Cheika can feel well pleased with the result.
Next up Wales, and with an extra week to settle his side, and with the pattern of play Cheika wants them to play expect a better all-round performance.
Tim Sheens will have slept well last night, especially as his big guns Cameron Smith, Greg Inglis, Cooper Cronk, Daly Cherry-Evans and Michael Jennings didn’t fire in the first 40, only Greg Bird and Sam Thaiday stood up to be counted.
Down 12-4 at the break, the Kangaroos needed an urgent injection of enthusiasm and pride, or humiliation was the only possible result.
The advent of Bronco Ben Hunt on debut was almost immediate. Just two minutes on the field, he dived on a pin-point Cameron Smith chip kick on the last tackle, to score under the posts, and with Smith’s conversion it was England 12-10.
Hunt livened up his seniors, and the big guns fired in the second session, with Cherry-Evans passing inside to Inglis, who scored without a hand being laid on him. Smith converted and the game was turned on its ear with a 16-12 success, and an unwanted record wasn’t revisited.
Having been well beaten 30-12 by New Zealand last week, the last time the Kangaroos were beaten in successive Tests was 1978 when France was successful 11-10 and 13-10, both in France.
That’s when France could play.
Next week it’s Samoa, and unless the Kangaroos play for 80 minutes Samoa will be a handful after last minute losses to both England and New Zealand.
But for the moment, let’s just enjoy the way Tony Popovic, Michael Cheika and Tim Sheens have delivered over the weekend.