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The case for Michael Cheika

31st August, 2018
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31st August, 2018
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The most pilloried sporting identity in Australia is Wallabies coach Michael Cheika.

But there’s a lot more to the 51-year-old than meets the eye.

He’ll give me a mouthful for pushing his case purely because he fights his own fights, and has throughout his life.

Off the field, he has turned his fashion house “Live Fashion” into a multi-million dollar international business, and just for good measure he speaks fluent French, Italian, and Arabic.

On the field, he was one of the toughest back row forwards in the Shute Shield during his 300-plus first-grade games with Randwick from the 1980s through to the 1990s.

Opponents would ask just one question in the lead-up to playing the Galloping Greens – “Is Cheika playing?”

During his career he was a vital member of seven premiership teams, and once he hung up his boots and took to coaching Randwick more premierships came his way.

He is the only coach in h1story to win major championships in both hemispheres – the Heineken Cup with Leinster in 2009, and the Waratahs to their first Super Rugby title in 2014, ending a 19-year drought.

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The icing on the cake was taking the Wallabies to the 2015 Rugby World Cup final at Twickenham against the All Blacks after just 16 games – seven of those during the Cup itself.

Yet Cheika has been portrayed in most quarters as a dill and one that must be sacked. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Coaches don’t lose their magic, players do.

Let’s look at the facts.

In those first-up 16 games as Wallaby coach, Cheika chalked up 11 wins for a 68.75 per cent success rate.

In the 34 internationals since, the Wallabies have won just 14 for 41.18 per cent – and the sacking dogs are barking loudly.

Yet Israel Folau, Bernard Foley, Will Genia, David Pocock. Michael Hooper, Rob Simmons, Sekope Kepu, and Scott Sio are still operating from the lineup that started the last RWC final, and so too are Tatafa Polota-Nau, Nick Phipps, Matt Toomua, and Kurtley Beale off the bench.

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Tevita Kuridrani also started but is currently injured. That’s 13 of the 23 still in business.

Importantly, four of the five key back row-pivots are still playing with Scott Fardy the only one missing, and he is a huge loss.

But the replacements from the RWC final are at least the equal, or better, than three years ago.

Especially Beale, who has grown in stature immensely.

Cheika’s current top squad boasts 329 caps in the forwards, 295 in the backs, and 401 off the bench.

That’s 1025 caps, so how the hell were the Wallabies beaten 78-25 in the last two Tests, miss 83 tackles and turn over possession 36 times?

Of the 23 only Pocock was the standout in both Tests, while Beale shone in the first.

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The rest didn’t stand up to be counted. If they played like that against Italy, there would be no certainty the Wallabies would win, and the Italians are the joke and the whipping boys of the Six-Nations.

But Cheika didn’t miss the tackles, drop the passes, lose possession, or over-run supports – the players did, and for that Cheika should be punted?

If Cheika is to be blamed for anything, it’s sticking to players who have let him, and the team, down.

Already in this campaign Cheka has dropped senior players Simmons and Kepu to the bench, but that’s just scratching the surface.

The prime example is his limp captain Hooper who is not the best number seven in the side, and certainly not the best captain – Pocock is both.

Michael Hooper

(Photo by Speed Media/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

And where is punishing prop Taniela Tupou with his 135 kgs to throw around, where is 208 cms of lock Rory Arnold and where are the 117 kgs of hooker Brandon Paenga-Amosa and backrower Caleb Timu?

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And ask the same question of three more backrowers in Scott Higginbotham, Jack Dempsey, and Jed Holloway?

It’s time for the incumbents to shape up, or ship out, and time for Rugby Australia to butt out altogether with no more off the planet signings like Hooper for $6 million over five years.

Having said that, if the Wallabies play to their natural ability, showing the pride and passion you would expect from a Wallaby squad, I have no doubts they can top Group D at next years RWC in Japan, account for France or the Pumas in the quarters and Ireland in the semis, before taking on the All Blacks again in the decider.

I doubt the Wallabies can stop the men-in-black chalking up their third successful RWC, so as Cheika said months ago unless the Wallabies do better than 2015, he’s riding off into the sunset.

In the meantime, Michael Cheika is by far the best man for the job, just let him do it.

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