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Criticism

Cheika angered by Garcès' refereeing in Wallabies' defeat to Ireland

‘That’s the edict we’ve given, that we can’t say anything about it.’

MICHAEL CHEIKA INDICATED his unhappiness with the refereeing performance of Jérôme Garcès after his Wallabies team was beaten 27-24 by Ireland in Dublin.

Michael Cheika Chieka was angered by the 13-3 penalty count against his team. Colm O'Neill / INPHO Colm O'Neill / INPHO / INPHO

The Australian head coach refused to go into great detail on his specific issues, stating that World Rugby have informed him not to do so in public.

Chieka instead said that he will be making contact with World Rugby’s referees’ chief, Alan Rolland.

“I thought we played a lot of footy in the end, mate, but we got penalised a lot, didn’t we?” said CheIka when asked if the 27-24 scoreline in Ireland’s favour fairly reflected the game.

13-3 penalty count, that costs you field position and territory, and then obviously points as well, so you can’t win a Test match giving away that many penalties or having that big a difference between the two teams. Impossible.

“That’s something I’ll be dealing with Alain Rolland about afterwards. He’s the referees’ boss, so I’ll go through the proper channels as opposed to making it an issue out here, and see if we can get something, but I doubt it.”

Pushed on the subject, CheIka pointed to an example where Iain Henderson impeded David Pocock off the ball before Ireland’s first try.

“It’s all about consistency of the application of the laws,” said Cheika. “Pocock was taken out about 10 metres beyond the maul, that’s something we would have got penalised for against New Zealand a few weeks ago.

Michael Cheika and Stephen Moore Chieka was not impressed with the refereeing. Colm O'Neill / INPHO Colm O'Neill / INPHO / INPHO

“Ireland played well and they deserved to win because they put us under pressure in the first half in particular and we got too far behind.”

But Cheika would not expand on his anger any further, stating that World Rugby have told head coaches not to speak about these issues in public.

We have to do that stuff with the refs, mate. We’ve been told we can’t talk about it in public, because they don’t want the interpretations being made in public. That’s the edict we’ve given: that we can’t say anything about it.

“We’d love to, but we’re not allowed to. I don’t want to get myself in any strife and we’ve made the point clear.

“We’ll go through the proper channels with Alain Rolland and then we’ll get on with the game.”

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