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'Crazy' Cheika his own toughest critic
By Iain Strachan
Michael Cheika claims he is his own toughest critic amid growing dissatisfaction with Australia's lack of competitiveness in the Bledisloe Cup.
New Zealand defeated the Wallabies 38-13 in Sydney last weekend to take the lead in the three-Test series, which the All Blacks can wrap up with another victory in Auckland on Saturday.
Australia have managed to record just two wins over their neighbours since 2011, and the latest limp display at ANZ Stadium has seen the scrutiny over Cheika's leadership intensify ahead of the Rugby World Cup in Japan next year.
"I think it's fair for people to have a negative response. We got beat, they wanted us to win. There's nothing wrong with that," he said.
"When my team loses, I want them to win, I'm negative as well.
Cheika revealed the pain of losing extends to his family, where the run of bad results is starting to take an emotional toll.
"I'll tell you now, there's no one hurting more than me when I walk down the tunnel and I see my two kids there crying.
"So it is built on emotion, there's emotions for us as well. But we've got to try to keep it clear with what we're doing.
"For me, I feel no matter who is throwing rocks, I'm in a good place because I'm always the hardest critic on myself… I've said it to myself already, and recovered from it and feel stronger for it to go back and turn the negative into a positive. Call me crazy."
Despite the criticism, Cheika appears to have the backing of his players with Tatafu Polota-Nau going into bat for the coach.
“He’s definitely the best man for the job,” said the 33-year-old hooker.
“At the end of the day he only wants what is best for the team and individuals when we have one-on-one time with him.
“He actually brings a great blueprint for us to work off. If anything, it’s more about how we take that blueprint and put it out there on the field.
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Latest Comments
You’ve got to look forward to next weekend more than anything too.
They really use this sorta system? Much smaller pool of bonus points available, that would mean they have far less impact. Interestingly you must be withen winning range/chance in France’s Top 14 league, rather that just draw territory, so 6 points instead of 7. Fairly arbitrary and pointless (something the NRL would do to try and look cool), but kinda cool.
I said it Nick’s and other articles, I’m not sure about the fixed nature of matchups in these opening rounds. For instance, I would be interested in seeing an improved ranking/prediction/reflection ladder to what we had last year, were some author here game so rejigged list of teams purely based of ‘who had played who’ so far in the competition. It was designed to analyze the ladder and better predict what the real order would be after the full round robin had completed. It needed some improvement, like factoring in historical data as well, as it was a bit skiwif, but it is the sort of thing that would give a better depiction of what sort of contests weve had so far, because just using my intuition, the matchups have been very ‘level appropriate’ so far, and were jet to get the other end of the spectrum, season ranked bottom sides v top sides etc.
Go to commentsAs a former rugby player, I spent 20 years as a specialist tackling coach in the AFL, SANFL, and Southern Football League. During this time, I was fortunate to be part of teams winning seven premierships. I believe there is a valuable place for cross-code coaching in these sports. I made many lifelong friends and enjoyed sharing knowledge and skills from different sporting backgrounds, which is encouraged at many elite levels.
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