Australia’s head coach, Michael Cheika, has mounted a resolute defence of his coaching beliefs and insists that the Wallabies will not alter their approach as they seek to avoid an unprecedented 3-0 series whitewash by England. Cheika, who has made three changes to his team for the third Test on Saturday, is adamant that his squad will continue to play an attacking brand of rugby despite losing successive Tests on home soil.
England, under the guidance of Cheika’s former Randwick team-mate Eddie Jones, have won the two games by 11 and 16 points respectively. The visitors even ran out clear winners in Melbourne despite a scarcity of territory and possession, sparking a debate about Australia’s tactics and reluctance to employ more pragmatic methods.
Cheika, however, was making no apologies as he outlined his longer-term vision for the Wallabies, from the top floor of a luxurious central Sydney hotel. “We are a team that very much believes in the way we play footy,” said the head coach, having recalled the centre Matt Toomua and the locks Rob Simmons and Will Skelton to his starting line-up. “We know we have to play more accurately but we’re not going to be changing our style. We’re not going to be kicking ... that’s the way we want to play and how Australians want us to play.”
The counter argument is that Test rugby is more about winning games than sporting ideology but Australia do not have a limitless supply of tight forwards and the principled Cheika is refusing to jettison the positive brand of rugby that propelled the Wallabies to the World Cup final last year. “I believe you stick at it,” he said. “I’ve always been involved with teams for whom playing footy is part of their identity. That’s the way I want to coach. I know that comes with risk but I’m not scared of that risk. I don’t want us to be reckless in terms of how we play; we’ve just to be better at it.”
The return of Toomua should help, offering Australia the second specialist playmaker they have lacked previously in the series, but the talented second five‑eighth is heading to Leicester later this year and Matt Giteau and Kurtley Beale have also been signed up by European clubs. Cheika is determined, however, that the Wallabies’ ball-playing heritage will not disappear with them.
“It’s about doing your absolute best and letting the cards fall the way they do,” he said. “They haven’t fallen right for us but you can’t cry about it. All the teams I’ve been involved with as a coach have always played lots of footy; sometimes it doesn’t happen and you get hit on the counter.
“It’s obviously not nice to lose games at home. But look at how England are bouncing back [from the World Cup]. Yes, it’s tough but rugby is about getting up off the floor and fighting back. A lot of chaps want to kick you when you are down but you’ll always keep the scars and the bruises for later on and remember where they are.
“I think we need to believe as coaches. I believe passionately about the way we want to play the game. I’ve never been a popular guy, it’s not always gone right for me. I’m used to being in situations where it’s not easy and you’ve got to earn it; it’s just character-building. I understand the concept of a series but what we need to do is play to our full potential, play our style of game, be more accurate and play with a little extra edge. Then we’ll have an opportunity to try and win back the Cook Cup in December. That’s the way the world works, brother.”
As for his relationship with Jones, who has been expertly pulling the strings throughout the tour, Cheika insists he is still “a mate of mine”, despite recent results and sly digs at the latter’s current status as “World Coach of the Year” following Australia’s series defeat. “He’s got a different style to me but that stuff’s not my go,” Cheika said.
“When you are coaching a club it’s a little bit different because you can get stuck in a bit more, you can have a bit of ribbing, you can play that card. When you are coaching your country, for me, there is a different responsibility. It’s entertainment, yes, but it’s all peripheral. That fact he’s referred to me as ‘World Coach of the Year’ shows how peripheral it is, because I know he doesn’t mean that. The reality is Steve Hansen probably should have won it anyway. I don’t know why they gave it to me. But I’m not worried about that.
“We’re still building as a team and I want to make sure I have no ego about it. The only people I want to impress and make respect me are the players and the Australian rugby public.”
Australia: I Folau (Waratahs); D Haylett-Petty (Force), T Kuridrani (Brumbies), M Toomua (Brumbies), R Horne (Waratahs); B Foley (Waratahs), N Phipps (Waratahs); J Slipper (Reds), S Moore (Brumbies, capt), S Kepu (Waratahs), W Skelton (Waratahs), R Simmons (Reds), S Fardy (Brumbies), M Hooper (Waratahs), S McMahon (Rebels).
Replacements (one to be omitted): T Polota-Nau (Waratahs), S Sio (Brumbies), G Holmes (Reds), A Coleman (Western Force), D Mumm (Waratahs), W Palu (Waratahs), N Frisby (Reds), C Lealiifano (Brumbies), T Naiyaravoro (Waratahs).
