What do you say if you're Michael Cheika right now?
Michael Cheika is confident Australia will close the gap to New Zealand for the second round of the Rugby Championship after a disastrous first 40 minutes in Sydney.
The Wallabies were outclassed early in the opening game on Saturday as the All Blacks ran in six tries to take a 40-6 lead at the break, Steve Hansen’s side exposing massive flaws in Australia’s defensive play.
A mix of pace and precision left the crowd at ANZ Stadium silent and a humiliating defeat looked on the cards, but Australia restored some dignity with a second-half fightback – the match finishing 54-34 to the world champions.
Cheika was highly critical of his side’s performance in his post-match media conference, but is confident they can improve before the return clash in Dunedin next weekend.
“I think it was pretty plain to see that our defence was not good enough at all, the tackling’s got to be better,” he said.
“That first part of the game is not the level that you can be at, not in any game, let alone a game against them [New Zealand].
“With the team we’ve got, the points should be coming, we’ve got an attacking type of team so we should be scoring points, but you’ve got to have both sides of the game.
“We’ve spoken about it, everyone understands what we need to do to rectify it next week – both mentally and on the training paddock.”
Our #Wallabies have fallen to the @AllBlacks in the #BledisloeCup opener. #AUSvNZL pic.twitter.com/5dezUk3cn2
— Qantas Wallabies (@qantaswallabies) August 19, 2017
He added: “But I know that we’ll improve. We’ve got to do some quick improving before the next game because we want to keep this series [the Bledisloe Cup] alive.
“I don’t think there is going to be a lot of changes, the change has to be more about believing in ourselves to make the hits when we need to, making sure we’re coming up in defence and not worrying about what the opposition might be doing.
“They’ll do it. This group have a very strong connection, this is a road block in front of course, it’s going to knock us down but it’s not going to stop us.”
Captain Michael Hooper was equally deflated by the first-half display and called for more belief ahead of match two.
“It’s not the start we would have hoped for in this series,” he told Fox Sports. “I’m really proud we showed that Australian spirit to come back. Some guys in our team really stood up to the challenge.”
In his post-match media conference, he added: “We’ve got to stick by the things that we’ve been doing, the things that we’ve been preparing for the last however long.
“It [second-half performance] showed that we did, we got some points on the board. It’s the ability to do that from the start of the game is what we’ll be looking to do next week.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Naaaww boys will be boys! Now run along ya wee scamp! Don’t let us catch you at again😏
1 Go to commentsGreat to have Ethan Blackadder back in the Crusaders in the last few weeks. One of the best all round loose forwards around. He played so well last week against the Rebels. Fantastic attitude Ethan has and his comments are spot on.
1 Go to commentsThe author is 100% right. The Springboks know that they don't have near the natural attraction, mana, skill and mystic the All Blacks have. So, Chasing the sun 1 & 2 was concocted to overblow the Boks image on the back of a corruptly obtained “win". It's marketing ploy to force the Boks delusion as the World's Best. I guess World Rugby is also not to be believed when it came out with an apology about how the final was officiated. And if the 2023 final such a superb game by the Boks, then the Boks crying about Referee Bryce Lawrence for decades is also deserves a laugh. Chase the sun and get burned like a moth. A very well written literary piece that tore the Boks and Chasing the sun farce to shreds. 🖤All Blacks🏉
141 Go to commentsI’d say France was far more hard done by in the 2011 final than the All Blacks in this game. Joubert simply refused to call a penalty against the All Blacks in the last quarter even directing an All Black to drop a ball he picked up in an offside position rather than penalizing him. This article also totally discounts the efforts of PSTD. Ask Jordie how well he played. Or the backup flank who played hooker for the entire game. Siya was also a brilliant tackle by Richie from scoring a blinder. Pollard was also fantastic. Look I don’t like the boks style but the only thing more questionable than the content of this article is the timing of it. Get over it already
141 Go to commentsDad Marty was also a handy rugby player for Linwood back in the day. Great bloke. Sensational softball career.
2 Go to commentsWhat ifs are always dangerous. If you look at the game before Sam cane got sent of SA was dominating. You could make the argument the going down to 14 men rallied the troops and made them have to play to win which is always dangerous.
141 Go to commentsOmg… you are bruised And battered Benny. Stop crying … the scoreboard speaks. What a pathetic lover you are.. 🤣🤣🤣
141 Go to commentsPacific Lions, cry me a river
141 Go to commentsThis is the single worst piece of journalism I have ever seen since your last one. As a neutral, who really states that there should be an asterisk next to a win? You are an utter embarrassment to real AB fans, journalism and that joke of a house which pays you for this nonsense. Get a life, Ben.
141 Go to commentsGuys. Cancel the World Cup champions after this analysis. It changes everything. Ben knows. We’ll have to unengrave the Bokke off the trophy and hand it to the ABs, now that I’ve been enlightened about this illegitimate win. This needs to be done. Now!
141 Go to commentsBen is right here though, Springboks were woefully poor with the advantage they had throughout this game. The France match was heroic because that was an even contest this match had it taken place in Rugby Championship would have been an easy win for NZ. If anything this match should tell the Bok coaches that a lot of this team should be changed. They beat this same NZ team by record margin with the same circumstances but with a different core. They bring back the tried and tested guys and they nearly botch this game.
141 Go to commentsI knew who wrote this article from the first few words in the headline…lol. The red card actually did the ABs a favour. It galvanized them, only then did they step up a gear. Before that there was zero momentum.
141 Go to commentsFirstly the foul on Bongi was a planned move just like the NZ master plan with Bryce Lawrence you kiwis are filthy fux perhaps try to play a cleaner game next time I doubt that’s possible tho but don’t worry world rugby is on yr side they trying to take away all the BOKS strengths to help all you weakling as Jeremy Clarkson would say LA OO ZA ERR..🤣
141 Go to commentsAbsolutely spot on Ben. I certainly wouldn't gloat over a win like that. Frustrating as it is it's done and dusted and history will forever show the result.
141 Go to commentsHo hum.
141 Go to commentsNo question they were the better team. But that is the beauty of sport isn’t it!
141 Go to commentsEveryone is into Hurling in Ireland according to Porter, but only 11 of Ireland's 32 counties enter a team into the national competition. Same old blarney.
1 Go to commentsLet’s be honest. The draw and scheduling in the World Cup was a joke but South Africa found a way after having to go the hard (nearly impossible) way to the Cup Final via France and England. NZ had a hard game against France (lost) and had 5 weeks to prepare for the Quarter, 3 weeks knowing it was Ireland. NZ theerfore had to win one big game against an Irish team who played SA and then Scotland 7 days before. They won and it was de facto a semi final because they were playing a relatively weak Argentina team and it was a walk over. In the final a very rested NZ team was playing a very tired SA team and still lost. They couldn’t score more than 11 points. Put another way SA had to find a way to win while tired and they achieved that. NZ should thank their lucky stars that they fixed the scheduling in 2015 otherwise they would be dealing with a Bok treble.
141 Go to commentsPerhaps if Bongi wasn’t targeted and removed from the game in the first 3 minutes it would have been quite a different game. Maybe if NZ also faced the same competition the Boks faced to their win NZ would have looked quite different. The final score shows who outplayed who.
141 Go to commentsRubbish article! Abuladze played most of Exeters matches when fit. He got injured against Glasgow a while ago and is out for the rest of the season, thats why he hasnt played for Exeter and Georgia recently. Do some proper research next time!
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