Rugby World Cup: Wallabies please coach Michael Cheika with reaction to ‘dark times’
OF all the sweetness and light in such a buoyant the win, Wallabies coach Michael Cheika said he learned most about his team in the darkness.
OF many positives in a record-breaking win over England, Michael Cheika was particularly pleased the only time the Wallabies got thunderstruck at Twickenham was when a speaker blared out the AC/DC classic during the team’s captain run.
The Aussie coach spoke pre-match about the importance of composure during the inevitable tough times against England, and to have a road-map to recovery when the “thunder” of the Twickenham crowd began to rumble.
On match eve backs coach Stephen Larkham arranged for Acca Dacca to echo across the hallowed ground while the Wallabies warmed up, and perhaps it was good acclimatisation because when the tough times and thunder came in the second half, Australia didn’t get struck.
MATCH REPORT: Foley dumps England out of their own party
AS IT HAPPENED: Relive the action from Twickenham on our rolling blog
PLAYER RATINGS: who were the stand-out Wallabies?
CHASTENED ENGLAND: ‘we’re sorry we’ve let everyone down’
FOLEY SHOW: Wallabies record-breaker silences Quade fans
WALES FOCUS: Wallabies not slowing down after England win
England went from 20-3 to a score of 20-13 with 15 minutes left but on the back of their scrum and Bernard Foley’s boot, the Wallabies kicked clear to 26-13 to ease the danger and scored a try on the bell to seal it.
Of all the sweetness and light in such a buoyant win, Cheika said he learned most about his team in the darkness.
“We managed the dark period we had there, for about 10-15 minutes,” Cheika said.
“We managed that better than we have in the past and we were able to come through that and get back into the game.
“We really wanted it. We really wanted to play well and were really hungry.
“We knew there would be a lot of pain, because we are in England’s backyard. The atmosphere was very loud, and that’s not an easy thing to deal with. That’s like a tsunami coming and it can really energise a team.”
In what was his best game as a Wallaby, Cheika praised Foley for standing up and leading the side when the pressure came on.
Foley said the Wallabies know tough times will come, but they don’t last unless you let them.
“In these tournaments, teams are going to have momentum swings and it is about how good you are at damage control at those times. We were able to turn that around quite well tonight, and finish that game off. It was very pleasing,” he said.
“It was a credit to a quality England side, we knew they were always going to fight back and they definitely did that. They tested us. But it was great the guys were able to keep their composure there at the end too and work our way out of it.
“That was probably just as pleasing, to get the result when everything was going against us for a time and to weather that.”
Originally published as Rugby World Cup: Wallabies please coach Michael Cheika with reaction to ‘dark times’