Rugby World Cup: Wallabies fly to Chicago for USA warm up match
WALLABIES coach Michael Cheika wants to turn hopers into believers and has consulted his predecessors to ensure preparations are thorough.
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WALLABIES coach Michael Cheika wants to turn hopers into believers for Australia’s Rugby World Cup campaign and has consulted several of his predecessors to ensure their preparations are thorough.
The Wallabies squad left Sydney on Saturday morning with the first port of call the United States.
Australia will play the US in Chicago next weekend before heading to Britain where the World Cup will be staged from mid-September.
Cheika revealed he had sought advice on tournament play from several people including Australia’s World Cup-winning coaches Bob Dwyer (1991) and Rod Macqueen (1999) and other Wallabies mentors John Connolly, Eddie Jones and Alan Jones.
“I’ve been given excellent advice from many of the players and coaches who have been involved in successful World Cups and did successful coaching around tournaments,” Cheika said at Sydney Airport on Saturday morning.
“They’ve really given me advice of taking one game as it happens and be in that moment, and I’m going to do that.”
The Wallabies recently beat major southern hemisphere rivals New Zealand and South Africa and won The Rugby Championship, but Cheika recognised not all Australians were confident about he team’s World Cup prospects.
“I think there’s a lot of people who are genuinely hoping we do well,” Cheika said.
“Our objective is to turn a lot of the hopers into believers.”
He said lock Rob Simmons, who missed both Bledisloe Cup Tests with a scaphoid injury in his wrist, should be right to return against the US.
Originally published as Rugby World Cup: Wallabies fly to Chicago for USA warm up match
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