Nightmare year for Wallabies ends on a low note with loss to England

AFTER four losses to England and three losses to New Zealand in 2016, it has been a painful rebuilding year for the Wallabies. Will 2017 prove any different?

LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 03: Bernard Foley of Australia looks dejected after the final whistle during the Old Mutual Wealth Series match between England and Australia at Twickenham Stadium on December 3, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

MICHAEL Cheika and Eddie Jones thawed out their frosty relationship over a bottle of red wine in the Twickenham sheds, but the Wallaby coach’s real hangover will come when assessing a season the Queen could only describe as “annus horribilis”.

The Wallabies leave London with a 37-21 defeat to their name, four successive losses to England, and the second lowest winning percentage (40 per cent) in the history of a Test season.

Ironically, the lowest winning percentage for a Wallabies side came in 2005 with England coach Eddie Jones in charge of Australia. He was sacked thereafter.

Cheika is contracted until the end of the 2019 World Cup but must rapidly improve his strike rate next year if his argument that this season was to blood the next generation of talent is to hold up.

“We’ve made decisions around this season as opposed to starting next season when the calendar isn’t perhaps as packed, I still believe it’s the right decision and you have to take the pain when it comes,” Cheika said.

“But I still think we’ve gained a lot on what we’ve done this year around the new players.

“There’s some new skill development that we’ve been doing with Mick [Byrne] coming in and the way we’ve been working as coaches has changed a lot in that regard and we’re seeing the benefit of those changes.

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“We’re scoring tries this year that we wouldn’t have last year and if we keep doing that we’ll be okay.”

Australia managed just two tries at Twickenham and were outscored 24-5 in the second half after holding the majority of territory and possession in the first.

Their Grand Slam hopes were ended the previous week by Ireland and they finish the season with nine defeats from 15 Tests, including three losses to New Zealand and four to England – the top-two ranked nations in the world.

Cheika and Jones had taken pre-match barbs to new levels during the week but the former Randwick teammates didn’t let the bad blood spill beyond the game as they chatted over glasses of French red post-match.

“Everyone is playing hard off the field and on the field, but at the end of the day one team wins and you respect that and everyone goes on with their business,” Cheika said.

“Everyone has to keep that pretty real. We go hard at each other sometimes and sometimes we don’t. But there is respect there always.

“When you win you stay humble and when you lose you pay respect and that’s the way she rolls.”

Cheika now has seven months to find solutions to key problems that plagued his team in 2016; the inability to capitalise on possession against top sides, costly lapses in defence, set-piece inconsistency and lack of discipline.

“We are trying to play a certain style and I know there we’ll be criticised for losing but you have to wear that sometimes,” Cheika said.

“When you don’t take those decisions it’s like ‘I have to keep my job at all costs’. But I don’t think like that, I feel I have a responsibility to develop talent and give them opportunities.

“And that is not just for 2019 It’s for the future it’s the way we coach players, the way we contract them.

“Maybe we haven’t been looking at our players well enough in a contracting cycle. The union is very much is in line with the project as well.”

The Wallabies return to Australia on Tuesday and Cheika will meet Australia’s five Super Rugby coaches in a fortnight.

“There are definitely issues and you’d be naive not to look at them,” he said.

“We have a heavy drain of players coming to Europe and the money here is so much more than what we can offer them back home.

“The collateral we need to be build is quality coaching and a good environment around the five Super Rugby team to improve the level they get to.

“That has to be the catalyst to unify the game.”

Originally published as Nightmare year for Wallabies ends on a low note with loss to England