Murray Kinsella reports from Twickenham
IT’S UNLIKELY MICHAEL Cheika lost sleep over the damage his Wallabies side did to England in Twickenham last night, but the Australian head coach did appear to feel for counterpart Stuart Lancaster.
The England boss’ job is under pressure after their failure to advance from the pool stages, the first time a host nation has not moved into the quarter-finals at a Rugby World Cup.
Cheika was understandably rapt at the Wallabies’ victory, but said he would take no pleasure from seeing another coach’s position come under severe scrutiny.
“Our goal is not to put Stuart Lancaster in a difficult position,” said Cheika post-match. “Our goal is to play well, win games and try to get through what is a really difficult pool.
“That’s something I’m not involved with and I don’t wish that type of difficulty on anyone, because I’ve been there and I’ve been in tough times.
It’s hard because you feel like you want to do more. I don’t know him very well, but he seems like a very genuine guy and he’s very proud of what he does. I’m sure he’ll bounce back, but our intent is certainly not to come here and do that.”
Turning to his own team’s performance, Cheika pointed to several areas where the Wallabies can improve before facing Wales in the final, decisive Pool A clash. On this evidence, the Australians will be very difficult to beat for the rest of the World Cup.
Cheika said he will be coming up against “the master coach” in Warren Gatland, but he can at least count on an out-half who delivered a world-class display at Twickenham.
Bernard Foley was largely flawless apart from his missed tackle for Anthony Watson’s try, scoring 28 of Australia’s 33 points.
“What we’re asking of Bernard and Quade Cooper is to take control of the games, and I think they’re both growing in that regard,” said Chieka. “I think Bernard was very influential in getting a lot of points but also in the way he stood up to take responsibility.
“It wasn’t always brilliant but that stepping up is something himself and Quade have been working hard on together. They’re improving each other by doing that. You can never take that stuff for granted.”
The Wallabies started the game strongly, and indeed bossed the first half overall, with Cheika stating post-match that his players had taken Ben Youngs’ warning of an early English onslaught very seriously.
The scrum, so often a thorn in Australia’s side, was a weapon as England’s Joe Marler had a torrid time at the hands of referee Romain Poite. Much of the credit for Australia’s scrum resurgence in recent times goes to their scrum doctor Mario Ledesma.
We’ve been working hard on it and like I said before, Mario has taught me that the scrum is a very humbling part of the game because you can dominate one and get your pants pulled down in the next one if you’re not on top of your game,” said Cheika.
“You’ve got to be consistent and, yeah, it went well tonight but you’ve got to be consistent again next week and again and again. Everyone is improving there, Fiji had an excellent scrum and teams are focusing on that part of the game. Everyone is a threat.”
