Hint of fresh Wallabies approach may have Waratahs sweating
Coach Michael Cheika can be ruthless. Is he planning to cut the umbilical cord with his NSW favourites for the World Cup?
Michael Cheika has promised the Wallabies will have “a few new tricks” up their sleeve for the World Cup in Japan and, intriguingly, said they would “look a little different to what most people may expect”. But what exactly can be expected from a Cheika-coached Australia team?
Since taking over as Wallabies coach at the end of 2014 Cheika has relied heavily on members of the NSW Waratahs team he guided to the Super Rugby title in 2014. Players such as Michael Hooper, Kurtley Beale, Israel Folau, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Sekope Kepu and Bernard Foley have been mainstays when available. And you expect to see them in any of Cheika’s sides.
But Cheika’s selections and tactics have not worked for the last three years. Dual international Michael O’Connor made a revealing comment when he was appointed independent selector last month, saying Brumbies back-rower David Pocock should be considered in his natural openside flanker position rather than at No 8, where he has played for the last four years to accommodate Hooper.
A Wallabies selector in 2006 and 2007, O’Connor pointed out that Australia had two outstanding opensides in that era, George Smith and Phil Waugh, but they did not play together in the same back row. Importantly, Cheika now has what he has not had for the last three years: a natural No 8, in Fiji-born Isi Naisarani, who will be eligible to play for the Wallabies this year.
This would mean demoting Hooper, the incumbent Wallabies captain, to the bench, a seemingly unimaginable thing for Cheika to do. But the coach can be ruthless when he needs to be
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