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Steve Hansen in under-fire Michael Cheika's corner
By Online Editors
Wallabies head coach Michael Cheika has the backing of All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen, despite growing calls for the former's head.
The Wallabies have won just three of their last 11 test matches but Rugby Australia chairman Cameron Clyne firmly stated Cheika was still the best man to lead the team.
Hansen agrees with Clyne.
"It's not for me to say what's right for Australian rugby, but what I do know is that continuity has been proven over and over and over again to be a pretty good recipe," he told media ahead of Saturday's third Bledisloe test against the Wallabies.
"You look at Sir Alex Ferguson, he just about got sacked and went on to do the job [at Manchester United] for 30 years. He wasn't too bad.
"[Jose] Mourinho is probably in a similar boat at the moment. They're going to decide what they're going to do with him because they're not going as well as they'd like.
"I just think sometimes we pull the trigger too quickly on the coach and sometimes I guess it is warranted, but most of the time I don't think it is.
"I think it's a good thing they [Rugby Australia] have given the players a platform that's secure because they know the coach is secure. Once that happens, people can get on and do what they have to do."
The Wallabies' horror run has seen them fall to a worst-ever seventh in the World Rankings, but Hansen still knows that anyone can be beaten on any given day.
"I don't think it's a reflection of how good they are. They can beat anybody," he said.
"If things go well for them on the day, they can beat anyone, which is a good sign for world rugby - if your number seven side can do that, you'd expect the other teams between there and number one to be able to do the same."
Hansen was also quick to remind press of the last time the two teams met in a third Bledisloe test. The result was Cheika's first victory over the side.
"We love beating them and they love beating us," Hansen said.
"Didn't we lose this game last year? You don't forget that."
The All Blacks will take on Japan next weekend before embarking on their tour of England, Ireland and Italy.
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Finau is definitely operating on razor thin margins. He hasn’t done anything wrong… yet. But a player going into contact 6 inches lower than he is expecting, without him even knowing, will end in disaster. You can imagine a situation where the pass dies on Edmed and he has to bend down a little lower to catch it at the last second. Finau’s hit would have been catastrophic. The margins are just too fine. He needs to study how PSDT, at 6’7”, manages to drop his tackle height and exert just as much force with close zero danger of taking someone’s head off. Given how poorly NZ has adapted to lower their tackle height, and that this issue which has plagued the ABs for years and played a big part in them not winning the World Cup, I thought NZR and all SR coaches would be prioritising sorting this issue out. If I was Razor I would be on the phone to Clayton MacMillan and Samipeni Finau saying exactly that. Finau is a monster and shaping up to be the closest thing to Kaino since Kaino, but I wouldn’t risk selecting him for the ABs at the moment.
Go to commentsThe surprising stat I saw in the Blues game when showing Sotutu equaling the Blues forwards record was that Akira has not scored a try since 2019. Now my memory is pretty bad when it comes to those sorts of the things, I can remember his AB try though, but anyway I can’t see I can remember his last blues touchdown or any in recent years. Surely that still has to be a bogus stat. Maybe excludes SRA games?
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