The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

Will Cheika be sacked before the World Cup?

27th August, 2018
Advertisement
Autoplay in... 6 (Cancel)
Up Next No more videos! Playlist is empty -
Replay
Cancel
Next
Expert
27th August, 2018
265
7168 Reads

The thing about calling for a coach’s head is that regardless of whether it’s bang on the money or a massive over-reaction, once that call has been made, it’s out there for all and sundry to chew on.

When former ESPN Scrum colleague Greg Growden called on Wallabies coach Michael Cheika – and all his coaching staff – to be replaced after the Bledisloe Cup loss in Sydney last week, the article was widely read and even widely reported on.

Plenty of you referred to it on the day and in the days afterward.

Whether it was bang on the money or a massive over-reaction doesn’t matter; it clearly struck a chord and is already shaping opinions. Those opinions may have been pre-existing and were confirmed by Growden’s article; they may be brand new opinions as a direct result of the article. Again, this doesn’t matter.

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika

Michael Cheika has come under serious fire (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

And nor does it matter that I still haven’t read the article. The intent and the message within Greg’s piece were as clear and uncompromising as it always has been. Whether you agree with him or not, he’s not one of Australia’s leading rugby columnists by fluke. I didn’t need to read the article to know what was said.

So going into the return leg on Saturday night, the last thing Cheika will have wanted was a performance that would ensure those calls only gain traction. The last thing he needed as the Wallabies coach with a stated ambition of taking them to a Rugby World Cup and riding off into the sunset after a strong tournament was an Auckland Bledisloe performance that ignored the obvious lessons from Sydney.

I’ve been involved in enough post-match interviews and press conferences to know you’re more likely to get a truer picture of the real feelings out on the field straight after full time has been blown. That’s before thoughts can be gathered, before emotions can be dampened, and before media managers can establish ‘the message’.

Advertisement

Rod Kafer, on the ground during Fox Sports’ post-match show on Saturday night at Eden Park: “Michael, the team was in the game at half-time; again, just that second half. They just let it slip…”

Cheika: “Yeah, turnovers again, you know.”

“You know they’re going to bring it, when it happens, and we’ve got to react more urgently to come up and shut that down.

“When you go back and dissect that game, it’s the same as last week exactly.

“They’re very good at it, and we’ve got to get better at stopping that – and also limiting turnovers. In the first half, we didn’t give away many, but in the second half we gave away far too many, and that cost us.”

As far as immediate commentary goes, it doesn’t get much more damning for a playing group and a coaching team than an admission that the same mistakes were repeated a week later.

And that now needs to force some serious – and quite possibly uncomfortable – questions for the coach. You can’t leave a post-RWC legacy if you don’t actually make the RWC.

Advertisement

He pointed to his assistants being more focussed on the Wallabies only recently, that Nathan Grey and Stephen Larkham “not having to coach Super Rugby sides” was bringing huge benefits to the national cause.

Yet, under a full-time defence coach, the Wallabies missed 39 tackles on Saturday, coming on the back of 41, 17, 34, and 18 missed tackles working our way back to the First Test against Ireland this year.

In that same time, the Wallabies’ attack has managed just 12, 13, 16, 21, and 18 points across the five Tests, averaging less than two tries per game, and conceding 12.8 turnovers. In 2017, the Wallabies averaged 4.2 tries per game, crossing the stripe 59 times in 14 games.

Will Genia

Will Genia of the Wallabies (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

From one to fifteen, Cheika needs to consider his options and who he sees as his first, second and third choice in each position. Any position that comes with any hesitation around the names needs urgent attention.

Among his props, who are the clear first choice loose- and tight-heads? Does consideration need to be given to Taniela Tupou’s impact at the start of games? Is Sekope Kepu still in the top half-dozen props in Australia? What is the best way of getting experience and time at Test level into Jermaine Ainsley?

If Tatafu Polota-Nau remains the starting hooker, what is the pecking order among Folau Fainga’a, Brandon Paenga-Amosa, and Tolu Latu? And where will Jordan Uelese factor when fit again?

Advertisement

Adam Coleman has had eight different lock partners in two years, though it does feel like Izack Rodda is emerging as the first-choice no.4. But where does Rory Arnold fit now? He was in Auckland, but only in a training capacity.

Damien McKenzie ghosting past Rob Simmons with ease in the 68th minute on Saturday night in the lead-up to Beauden Barrett’s fourth try wasn’t overly surprising, but he’d only been on the park for 15 minutes. And he missed three of the seven tackles he attempted in 28 minutes on the field. Is he still in the top three locks in the country?

Is Lukhan Tui being groomed for the hard-working no.6 role that Scott Fardy perfected, to compliment the double-team of David Pocock and Michael Hooper? And should consideration be given to Hooper playing as the primary ball-carrying no.8 of the two, and Pocock left to his own devices on the open side?

How will Joe Powell and Jake Gordon get up to Test standard over the next year if only one of them gets eight minutes off the bench? Should Will Genia skip the Spring Tour for the greater good of Australian scrumhalves?

Should Bernard Foley sit out Tests between now and the start of the RWC? Not because I believe he deserves to be dropped, but because I genuinely have no idea what the flyhalf options are behind him. We need to know this.

Bernard Foley

Bernard Foley of the Wallabies (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Does Matt Toomua need to start at 12 now and shore up the midfield defence? Could we get more out of Kurtley Beale by playing him at fullback? Where does Jack Maddocks fit into the grand scheme if everyone is fit? Is the Adam Ashley-Cooper news an overreaction to losing Samu Kerevi and Tevita Kuridrani in the same season?

Advertisement

And are we going to continue to overlook the immediate attacking gains – both aesthetic and actual – the Waratahs made playing Israel Folau on the right wing for a month this year?

The time for a rethink about the Wallabies’ RWC approach isn’t next January, and it sure as hell isn’t next year’s Rugby Championship.

If Michael Cheika has his eye on other players, or different combinations, then we need to see them now. To do the same thing and expect different results is only going to increase the volume of discontent.

Cheika can bristle at the tough questions all he likes, but surely he knows how momentum works. And regardless, surely he’s seeing the same issues on the field that we’re all seeing?

close