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Michael Cheika has warned Australia runs the risk of more poor results in the upcoming Rugby Championship, unless a line is drawn under the nation’s Super Rugby season from hell.
All five of Australia’s teams lost more than they won, with even the conference-topping Brumbies managing just six victories from 15 games.
On the day when he named an extended 38-man training squad of players drawn from the four eliminated local teams, Wallabies’ coach Cheika wasn’t prepared to dwell on the less than super results.
“We’ve got to start putting the line under this at a certain point,” Cheika said.
“Okay, it hasn’t been the greatest Super Rugby season of all time, but if we keep looking backwards, we’re only going to keep getting the same result.
“We’ve got to start planning for a different outcome and planning and preparing according to getting a different outcome, and that’s what we want to have with our team.”
The underachieving Reds and Waratahs had the most squad members with 12 and 10 respectively, followed by the Force with nine, including six forwards.
The Waratahs were the only team not to provide any of the 11 uncapped players in the squad.
Cheika said the Wallabies would need to play at a level they haven’t experienced in their opening Bledisloe Cup and Rugby Championship game against world champions New Zealand in Sydney next month.
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He said it was the intensity of the recent games between the All Blacks and the British and Irish Lions that stood out rather than anything tactical.
“We’ve obviously got different personnel to what they (the Lions) would have, so we play a slightly different way,” Cheika said.
“But obviously there would be a few things that we would be naive not to have a look at, in what they did, they put a bit of pressure on at different times of the game.
“Also New Zealand were missing a few players throughout that series as well players that were crucial to their campaign, too.
“So they’ve still got so much weaponry that we’ve got to be ready for, and over these next few weeks we’re going to do our absolute best to be ready.”
