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With the Wallabies capitulating to another loss against Eddie Jones’ England, this time 37-18, the simple and obvious question to be asked is this: will Wallabies Coach Michael Cheika and his assistants be sacked?
Even the most ardent supporters of head coach Michael Cheika, attack coach Stephen Larkham, defensive coach Nathan Grey and forwards coach Simon Raiwalui would have to concede that rhetoric of any substance now falls on deaf ears.
The Australian public is fed-up to their eyeballs with the repetitive nature of Australia’s losses and verbal offerings from senior figures within the group in attempted justifications and understandings.
When live-wire English winger Johnny May crossed for the first try of the match in the third minute after Australia had failed to exit their own 22 gifting the venerable English forwards a five-yard scrum, the Wallaby scrum subsequently disintegrated and one wonders had the Wallabies learnt anything from the previous encounter with the English in 2017?
In that match the Wallabies were defeated 30-6, yet astutely Australian skipper Michael Hooper said prior to that match, “Obviously they’ve got a great set-piece, a good structure around how they kick and also attack, so for us it’s about being able to relieve pressure, getting out of our zone effectively so they can’t build the scoreboard like they have in previous games.”
Echo, echo, echo…
Moving on. It is well established that the Wallabies do look to play with width and do so through a dual player-maker, duel openside flanker team selection. Yet this brand of rugby has not delivered the tries and therefore the victories sought by Cheika et al.
Nevertheless, it has been persisted with for reasons beyond the boundaries of rational thought.
“I’m very positive about the team as a whole. Seeing the improvements, we’re scoring tries that we wouldn’t have scored last year,” Cheika said in 2016.
“We’re making the investments that we should have made in 2008, 2009.”
Echo, echo, echo…..
Well, it appears those investments have failed to deliver in 2018 and much of the Australian Rugby public would beg for the tries the Wallabies did score in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
Yet the rubbish play continues unabated evidenced this week by the lofted pass to a stretched armed Michael Hooper running towards the sideline, away from any meaningful support and a meaningful style of rugby in the process.
The simple question Rugby Australia needs to ask itself is, “Will Michael Cheika and his coaches deliver success at the 2019 Rugby World Cup”? The simple answer is “No” because there is no cogent independent evidence to support the hypothesis in the affirmative.
Rugby Australia should guard against the ‘Groupthink Rhetoric’ that seems to flow with ease from Michael Cheika and Michael Hooper at any given press conference post a test loss as security that the campaign is on track. It is patently obvious it is not.
The Australian rugby public is well aware of the opportunity that next week will provide to right the wrongs of the present loss. We are all aware of what a privilege it is to play for your country.
Michael Cheika (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
We are abundantly aware of the need to trust, for discipline and fixing up the small errors to win the next match. Every Australian fan could near recite a post-match Test conference and come up with essentially the same message as they have heard it ad nauseam since 2016 and for the love of humanity it must stop because the opportunity to pull and your national jumper and rip in a little bit better next week is not an actual game plan!
“Obviously, we’re very disappointed and we apologise to our fans. Honestly, we’ve had such great support and it’s very disappointing to me – too many errors; too many dropped balls at key moments,” Cheika said.
Echo….
“There were too many turnovers in key moments just giving them the ball” Cheika said while digesting a horror 3-0 Bledisloe Cup series whitewash.
Echo, echo, echo….
While there is no cogent evidence to support an argument to keep the current coaching staff and model, the issue is if Cheika et al are to go, who replaces them?
It’s not as if international rugby coaches and their requisite assistants a readily found and are available to fill the void if mass sackings occur, especially at this stage of the Rugby World Cup cycle.
This is the abject failure of Rugby Australia in succession planning and we have chewed up and spat out too many coaches before with little to no platform to continue from.
Some may assume that Larkham would move to the head coaching role post-2019 Rugby World Cup however he can’t bring the desired results as an assistant now so how could he seriously be considered for the head coaching role?
The politics within Australian rugby is at times an illogical blood-sport and Larkham may still have key allies within Rugby Australia so don’t write him off yet however undeserving of the role he is.
The focus then may turn to the current Super Rugby Coaches, but are any of them ready for the head coaching role and what adverse impact would that have on Super Rugby 2019? The wise choice would be to leave the Super Rugby coaches where they are for the sake of provincial level stability.
Which leaves potential suitors Jake White, Sir Graham Henry, Wayne Smith and Robbie Deans as possible 10-month coaches. But why would they want to coach the Wallabies?
I guess the Australian Rugby public just have to realise the opportunity 2019 brings…..
“There are a lot of great people in our team and a lot of great things happening behind the scenes that right now aren’t turning themselves into wins, but we will turn them into wins next year,” Cheika said last weekend.
Echo, echo, echo….
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.