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Michael Cheika is the best appointment in Australian rugby since Rod Macqueen.
They are kindred spirits – Macqueen from Green Rat territory, Cheika a Galloping Green – both from opposite sides of the harbour, with the same rugby blood flowing through their veins.
The difference is those players under Macqueen embraced his doctrine to win the max – Rugby World Cup, Bledisloe Cup, Tri-Nations, and beating the British and Irish Lions.
Those under Cheika have the same ability, but have they got the same rugby nous?
The jury is out.
The same applies to the Waratahs with Cheika wearing two hats.
And unless the Waratahs snap out of their malaise, they haven’t a hope in hell of retaining their Super Rugby crown that took 19 years of pain and disappointment to achieve.
Wasteful.
The time to start is tonight at the nib Stadium in Perth against the Force.
The scene is set with the Waratahs on 31 points from seven wins and three losses to the Force’s 11 points from one win and 10 losses, the win was against the Waratahs in the first round 23-15 when the champions were off the planet.
Time to even the books with a bonus point.
All the ingredients are there with the Waratahs boasting 492 Test caps to the Force’s 63.
It should be one-way traffic if the Waratahs get their act together and stop waiting for things to happen instead of making them happen.
Up front only second-string hooker Tolu Latu is not an international, while in the backs only winger Taqele Naiyarovoro hasn’t played for his country.
So what’s the problem, there’s enough international ammunition on board to win every game by plenty?
Let’s kick off with the pack, bristling with seven Wallabies, It should be a given they win at least 60 per cent possession, providing they give quick service to a crack backline – on paper.
But the forwards don’t take command as they should, with the problem magnified by Nick Phipps.
He’s quite capable of being a world class halfback, but he only shows that quality spasmodically.
The rest of the time he’s pedestrain servicing his backline. How many times does the referee bark “use it” as Phipps looks at the ball just sitting there pleading to be delivered.
Then the passing problem, a cocktail of too slow, too high, too much behind support, with the odd pass bouncing along the deck, placing enormous pressure on Bernard Foley who of sheer necessity tries to get rid of the ball, invariably putting pressure on Kurtley Beale.
And that scene is magnified right along the backline, until it gets to Adam Ashley-Cooper who more often than not dies with it.
Yet there are two excellent finishing wingers in Rob Horne and train-wreck Naiyarovoro, with Israel Folau out the back catching pneumonia while waiting impatiently for some action instead of just chasing or defending.
It all starts with Phipps, and that inlcudes feeding the scrum quicker to ease the pressure on his front row.
The Waratahs won the Super Rugby last year because of quick possession from their forwards, and the magic undestanding between Foley, Beale and Folau.
We could count on one hand the number of times that has been repeated this season in 10 games.
Wasteful.
The Waratahs are the best team in the tourament, but if they can’t embrace the Cheika doctrine more often and more readily, then the Wallabies won’t either. And there goes the Rugby World Cup.
While I’m calling on Nick Phipps to get game smart, it’s because all the major pluses of the Cheika doctine stem from him.
But in all fairness, the get game smart can apply to every Waratah in their own responsibility and territory.
I have no doubts the Wallabies can win a record third Rugby World Cup, but only if they follow Michael Cheika’s words of wisdom to the letter.
Seeing there are 13 Wallabies in the Waratahs starting line-up, how about starting tonight?