Cheika calls for discipline

Editor

Australia coach Michael Cheika acknowledged that discipline would be a critical factor when his Wallabies play against Scotland at Twickenham on Sunday.

During their final Pool A fixture against Wales last weekend, Australia received two yellow cards, after being frustrated by their opponents on the day. Cheika wants his players to move on from that and ensure that they are a full compliment against Scotland.

"I'd prefer to play with the full allocation of numbers. What I'd prefer to do is not give away the first penalty," said Cheika, making reference to the ill-discipline which manifested itself against Wales.

"It's probably the way the game was going, dragging into that. That's not our go, we're not playing for that type of stuff."

While the Australian coach indicated he understood why players sometimes made the decisions that they did, there was absolutely no excuse for committing infractions that jeopardise the interests of the team.

"At the end of the day there's no excuses. And the way the guys are kicking now … the guy from France was kicking from 50-something metres … you've got to be so careful [with giving away penalties]," he added.

"You can't be playing the game with 13 against 15. We were lucky we got away with it. I don't think we were poorly disciplined, we just went through a little trot there where we made a few errors back to back and the way the game was going, we paid the penalty."