Hey Michael Cheika, it's time for a brains trust meeting with Macqueen, Dwyer and Jones

And to cap it all off - he is a secret Leaguey at heart!

Michael Cheika replaced Michael Hooper with a Hooper clone, Samu. Still an un balanced backrow , and with Tui who is a lock trying hard to play 6 it became all too difficult . That is why we lost. Hooper the 6 million dollar man would have made no difference. Folau passing to an unmarked Foley would have made a difference.

It’s ironic that this is the most expensive team ever produced in oz is one of the worst. Well done RA. Keeping throwing millions at donkeys.

You are spot on with Toomua. He is our best 10 by a country mile. Also agree that Macqueen, Jones and Dwyer come from a non professional era when the game was a whole lot different. However Cheika does need help. I would like to Brad Thorn in to assist with the forwards and have some input to the selection process.

Hi David, I don't think Cheika would seek or take counsel from any of these three. He is just not that sort of guy sadly. The basis of what you are saying is correct however. He has coached and had success at a provincial level both here and over seas. At a national level his record is not so good. He needs to understand that his role as a National coach is different. It is expected (required) that a national coach seek counsel from a variety of specialists. Most professionals do this without fear of denigration. In my opinion, he needs to seek advice from other Super Rugby coaches here in Australia. I would also like to see him bring in a forwards coach like Brad Thorn not only to provide some discipline around training but also provide a different perspective on selections and game plans. His isolationist 'I did it my way' approach may work at a regional level but is not healthy at a national level.

Surely it is time for some form of independent inquiry into professional rugby performance in Australia. Getting rid of Cheika must happen but he is the tip of the ice berg. Independent review by panel of former international administrators, coaches and senior players and non rugby Australian counterparts who can review and make recommendations without fear or favour is needed. Appoint interim coach to get us to WC much like Socceroos to hold the fort until review is complete.

The Argentinian 13 has Foley covered until just before Folau steps inside and then he moves in. Folau would have got over the line but for the bloke (who is out of the frame) comes in and clobbers him in cover. Maybe Foley would have been knocked over the sideline had Folau passed it. Yes, a more skilled ball distributor would have made the pass but would not have scored Folau's first try. It was a split second decision and wasn't as bad a mistake as is being made out.

More productive if Cheika were to have a chat with centre link. 2nd to 7th and not finished yet.

Good idea. The look on Toomua's face when he was replaced said it all.... "Me? Are you kidding?"

I just read that James O'Connor's determined to make the Wallabies 2019 World Cup squad. This is such a brilliant idea, cos when the boys get binned at the group stage, someone's gonna need to secure and co-ordinate the party substances, and who better?

There is NEVER any reason to have a discussion with the Parrot. Sure, nice record of Jones … except for that loss to France in the semis in 1987, but 1980's amateur rugby doesn't exactly apply in 2018.

If the basics are not there then the solutions are not at hand. I think the coaches from the past would want to start from the grassroots and build up as there needs to be a long term solution not something trying to mask the glaring deficiencies.

"surely Cheika had already picked their brains?" I don't know about Macqueen's relationship with Cheika but given that Dwyer was Cheika's former coach at Randwick and a likely mentor as a coach and that Cheika is reported to be on good terms with Jones, I'd say that it's most likely that both have given their 2 cents worth to Cheika.

Really great comment, Hoy.

Yep, sign him up.

I had my rant written out in neat paragraphs... Editors, what's the deal with the new format? It looks like dung.

LMAO - but let us see if the Lock / "come centre" can do that dummy and try 999 times out of a 1,000? But a point well taken!!

I completely agree, but it is even more woeful isn't it... Lets look at the current selections as a whole... Our tight 5 isn't too bad, but after many years, we still haven't locked down our best second row combination, with the rotation seemingly endless, for no reason... Our backrow has been really poorly overlooked... RA have done us a huge disservice by financially forcing the selection of a player who isn't as good as the other option in his position... but this love for that particular player offsets the whole forward pack really... because we have deficiencies in key aspects by selecting those two players. Then when given the chance to have a balanced backrow, the coach still doesn't do the obvious thing and select a balanced back row, he picks the other 7 in the squad, still leaving us with deficiencies. The reserve halfback is continually selected, despite guaranteeing one point leaking brain explosion each game, plus not having a very good pass... Yet the players behind him, you know, other potential options, though highly enough of to actually make the squad, aren't given anything more than 2 minutes... thus making them completely underdone when actually required. Foley is supposedly out of form, but look, his form hasn't changed since 2015. He had a cracking game against England in the WC. That was it. I think he's had one other really great game since then, but other than that, he has simply done nothing that shows he is true international standard. Toomua has been the gel over the last two games, and he was pulled off the field early instead of Beale who was having an absolute Barry Crocker... Foley's sole role seems to be feed Beale to do something creative and hog the touch finders... The whole Foley/Beale/Toomua 10/12 triangle is a joke. It makes no sense at all how they are being used. Beale takes more first receiver ball than Foley when they play together... So what is the point of Foley? Then Beale plays 10, but Toomua takes more ball...? The ones Beale took at first receiver bounced off his head... Solve the problem, play Toomua at 10, and leave Beale at 12 to rove wide, but then don't play this rubbish "who's going to be first receiver" garbage. The 10 is first receiver. It isn't tricky to have your 12 there more often than not. It just stilts any combination and attack we might run... Poor Hodge, a natural 13, finally gets an extended few runs at 13, but seems to be made to stand on the wing more often than not... why? I lost count of how many times the ball went wide to the winger... who was our 13. Poor bloke. It's no way to develop your game. Our back three? Folau on the wing is actually his better spot I think. I don't like DHP because I think he is weak in contact, but situationally as a fullback, he is better than Folau. Maybe, if Banks got a go, we could have some actual pace in the back three? Koribete? The longer he plays, the more lost he looks. It is quite bizarre, but then it might be down to the roving commission they have given him to pop up all over the field... running a set play right to left? have the left winger stand somewhere in midfield, and play our 13 on his wing? Then when we swing it back, he can get two touches in the one movement... make sense? No, not really... Cheika and his group of coaches are hopelessly over complicating our game play. It is unnecessary, and that is why we struggle to win our moments... because we have a confusingly rigid structure that is hopelessly and needlessly complex. You only have to look at how we all feel sad when someone like Folau gets injured, because we know we rely on those players who can score individually great tries... because we have no team ability to build to a try, because it just isn't there. It has been coached out, through either inattention, or more insidiously, poor coaching. I saw a team on the weekend that looked like it hadn't been coached on possibly situations... a team that looked like it honestly had not trained in a contact situation. Pressure of someone in front of you tackling you... it just looked we had trained unopposed, and then when someone tried to throw a spanner in the works of our unopposed run, we couldn't do anything to stop them, because we hadn't prepared for opposed situations... that is how this team has looked for the last 4 years to be honest. It just deadest isn't acceptable for a national team to lose so many key moments. Our players are good enough. We are close enough, they are good enough. A good coach, will make the world of difference. We just need to get the right now, rather than knee jerk and end up with another Cheika... We need a national structure, and brains. At the moment, we don't have a national anything.

I disagree Sheek. If we have the greatest ball players in the world, and we aren't doing the drills to keep those skills etc, then we lose them. If we have the most creative Rugby brains in the world, and we don't let them play as they see, but drill them to go through set up after set up, regardless of how the game is shaping, then we lose our brains and ability to think through situations... The cattle are good enough. The coaching at all levels is letting us down, it's letting the players down. It is that simple.

Cheika's fine, leave him alone. I concur with my Kiwi compatriot Raelene Castle (Cheikas boss), in having full confidence in Mr Cheika as Australian Rugby coach. I also think Raelene should receive and order of chivalry.