Rugby World Cup: Wallabies v England, Cheika upsizes pack
MICHAEL Cheika has gone for the “Big Dog” over a young terrier on his bench to play England in Sunday’s crucial Rugby World Cup match.
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MICHAEL Cheika has gone for the “Big Dog” over a young terrier on his bench to play England, overlooking Sean McMahon for the more experienced Ben McCalman for the reserve backrow spot.
Cheika finalised his bench as Fiji did Australia a favour by denying Wales a bonus point in the Welsh team’s 23-13 win in Cardiff.
If England manage to beat Australia at Twickenham on Sunday morning, the Wallabies will likely have a straight shootout with Wales to progress through the pool stages and not be in danger of being knocked out due to insufficient bonus points.
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Like Australia, Wales raced out to an early lead with two tries in the first half but couldn’t manage to score again against the gallant Fijian side, who pushed the home side and drew within seven points.
Meanwhile, Cheika finalised his bench after delaying announcing a full team yesterday.
McMahon had staked a massive claim to replace the injured Will Skelton with a second consecutive man-of-the-match performance against Uruguay, but in the end Cheika went for McCalman — who goes by the nickname “Big Dog” in the team room.
McCalman was also strong in the Wallabies’ thumping of Uruguay, and at 108kg and 192cm is a bigger body than 100kg, 186cm McMahon. With two no. 7s already in the starting line-up, McCalman has been preferred to give more flexibility.
James Slipper returns to the Wallabies after recovering from concussion, and Greg Holmes has overcome an unspecified injury issue that kept him out of the Uruguay game.
The Wallabies have been at pains to avoid any of the public pressure on England this week, desperate not to give their rivals a motivational fingerhold to climb up and over them in the big match.
Cheika dismissed English bluster about the scrum by saying “talk’s cheap” and captain Stephen Moore backed it up when asked if knocking England out of the tournament was extra motivation.
“If you are playing for that reason you haven’t got a real reason for why you want to do it yourself,” Moore said.
“Anything we are doing here is for us. Not to do anything to anyone else. Those external motivations like that, that you talk about and is often said — they last for two minutes on the field.
“When you are going to go through 80 minutes of warfare, or our version of it, you need bigger motivations than that as those motivations can go away in a heartbeat as soon as one thing goes wrong.
“Our motivations have to be from deep inside. Having a real strong drive as to why we want to be the best we can.
“So those other things are relatively peripheral and quite superficial as they dissipate quite quickly when there are 82,000 people screaming against you in the stadium.”
Wallabies team including reserves to play England at Twickenham:
1. Scott Sio (12 Tests)
2. Stephen Moore (c) (97 Tests)
3. Sekope Kepu (58 Tests)
4. Kane Douglas (18 Tests)
5. Rob Simmons (55 Tests)
6. Scott Fardy (25 Tests)
7. Michael Hooper (vc) (47 Tests)
8. David Pocock (51 Tests)
9. Will Genia (61 Tests)
10. Bernard Foley (22 Tests)
11. Rob Horne (28 Tests)
12. Matt Giteau (97 Tests)
13. Tevita Kuridrani (25 Tests)
14. Adam Ashley-Cooper (vc) (109 Tests)
15. Israel Folau (34 Tests)
Reserves
16. Tatafu Polota-Nau (56 Tests)
17. James Slipper (69 Tests)
18. Greg Holmes (19 Tests)
19. Dean Mumm (39 Tests)
20. Ben McCalman (42 Tests)
21. Nick Phipps (34 Tests)
22. Matt Toomua (27 Tests)
23. Kurtley Beale (55 Tests)
Originally published as Rugby World Cup: Wallabies v England, Cheika upsizes pack
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