Wales have not lost at home this year and they have the longest-serving management team at tier one level. Australia have yet to win away in 2014 and recently appointed their third head coach in 16 months. A home banker at the Millennium Stadium? Not according to the bookmakers, who make the Wallabies odds-on favourites to extend the winning run over their hosts to 10 matches.
The last time Australia played a Test, three weeks ago when they lost to New Zealand in Brisbane their head coach, Ewen McKenzie, had been confirmed in position through to the end of next year’s World Cup. Within minutes of Malakai Fekitoa’s winning try, and six days before the Wallabies were leaving for their European tour, McKenzie announced he was heading in a different direction and Michael Cheika, who a few months earlier had led the Waratahs to Super 15 success, was hastily installed.
Cheika’s honeymoon was brief, a confetti throwabout against the Barbarians at Twickenham last weekend, and Wales will be the first of only eight Tests Australia have before the start of the World Cup when Wales, and their final opponents this month, England, will be among their group opponents. He has spent the last couple of weeks devising what players call a hybrid style, a mix of his approach at the Waratahs and what he inherited.
“It is not so much about work-rate but making more of an impact every time you are involved,” said the Australia prop James Slipper. “We have been learning on the run with the way he [Cheika] wants to play and it is about bringing the power. It has been exciting.”
Cheika is the latest Australia coach whose formative years were spent at the Randwick club in Sydney where running rugby is a template. He turned round Leinster and the Waratahs by refining their attacking play with a greater physical edge and he has named only two backs on the bench, Will Genia and the wing Rob Horne with Quade Cooper not required.
Cheika, with Wales saying they intend to start and finish the match with the same pace and intensity, has given himself the option of replacing his entire front five, with the second-rows James Horwill and Will Skelton among the replacements to tax Wales physically in the final quarter. Cooper has not played much this year because of injury and Christian Leali’ifano covers fly-half from the centre with Adam Ashley-Cooper comfortable with switching from the wing to the midfield.
While Australia have long produced back-rows of the highest quality – the debutant Sean McMahon is the latest to emerge – they are not so replete with front-rows. Saia Fainga’a is the third-choice hooker and the replacement prop Tetera Faulkner is uncapped.
Wales expect to gain an early advantage up front, having chosen Paul James at loosehead ahead of Gethin Jenkins for his scrummaging, but the Wallabies will look to prolong Wales’ southern discomfort by wearing their opponents down in the loose by keeping the ball alive and going hard into challenges.
The fly-half Bernard Foley is one of six Waratahs in the starting line-up. He said that Cheika had not imposed the style of the Super 15 winners on the rest of the squad and that the coach had commanded instant loyalty by being up front with all the players.
“Honesty is what you want rather than being kept in the dark,” said Foley. “I have an extra responsibility to pass on what I know to other guys and get them up to speed but the way we play is a bit of a hybrid. We are finding a way to win and this tour gives us the chance to get away from Australia and the white noise that was going on in the background before we left and enjoy our rugby.”
Enjoy is a word Cheika uses frequently, a legacy of his Randwick days, a club where the Ella brothers made their mark and whose nickname is the Galloping Greens. If Cheika succeeds, the Wallabies will become the Galloping Green and Golds.
