Michael Cheika ‘hurt’ by Australia failures

Colin Newboult

Australia Rugby Head Coach Michael Cheika (left) and Michael Hooper walk off the pitch at the end of the 2019 Rugby World Cup Quarter Final match at Oita Stadium, Oita, Japan.

Former Australia head coach Michael Cheika has admitted that he left the job with regrets having been unable to guide the national team to Bledisloe and World Cup victories.

Despite winning the Rugby Championship and guiding the Wallabies to the global tournament’s showpiece event in 2015, they struggled for consistency over the next four years.

In 2016, they succumbed 3-0 at home to England in their June series while two years later they claimed just four Test victories in 13 matches.

It culminated in a poor World Cup campaign which saw them ousted by the Red Rose at the quarter-final stage, going down 40-16 to Eddie Jones’ men.

“Am I satisfied in the end, mate? No, because I wanted to win a Bledisloe and the World Cup,” Cheika told Fox League.

“I wasn’t able to do that and that hurts me, personally, because I really value the supporter on the street and I know that’s what they want. I see them.

“When you’re coaching your national team, it’s very different to club footy. Number one, you’re not a recruiter, you’re a selector.

“So the next thing you really feel, the day after the game … all the kids, even the people who aren’t rugby people – because you’re representing Australia – they’re feeling how you played the night before.

“You have a big win, everyone’s pumped. You go for recovery, they’re all high-fiving ya, (saying) ‘good on ya’.

“Then the next [game] – I see it in my own family; you know, the kids, they’re all dressed in their jerseys and then the next morning, if we lose, they’re unhappy.

“So I feel it in my own family.”

Despite an unsatisfactory final couple of years as the Australian head honcho, Cheika still has found memories of the job and his time in charge.

“Honoured. Grateful,” he said. “For a kid like me, to think that he’d have the opportunity to coach the Wallabies, I would have never imagined. I’ve always been a sort of an outsider in rugby, outside of the establishment.

“So to get that opportunity – and to consider the circumstances that we’ve had going on in Australian rugby the last five years – we’ve always represented with maximum courage.

“Sometimes we weren’t at our best, sometimes we had to have terrible halves, had to make comebacks and we had some great wins as well. Even 2019, we had a great win over New Zealand in Perth.”

Cheika also thought off-field distractions and a number issues in Super Rugby played its part over the years as the national side failed to truly fire under Cheika.

He added: “At the end of the day, the Wallabies are a result of our preparations in Super Rugby and they’ve been difficult because we’ve had a lot going on.

“Whether it was Perth (with Western Force’s axing in 2017) on the outside and then players going overseas etc. and the format of the competition.

“But then when the guys got together, I think they really played hard for Australia every single time.

“I’m the first to know that that’s not perfect, but (I’m) always proud to be a part of that, some of the great wins and also for being there after some of the losses … being able to get the team back up.

“In coaching right now, you’ve got to be a professional at being able to turn negatives into a positive and that was something I really loved doing with those lads because they responded a lot.

“I think a lot of them played above their potential for where they are in their cycle.”