Bledisloe Cup: Michael Cheika refuses to apportion blame for Wallabies lineout malfunction
AUSTRALIA lost seven of their own lineout throws to gift New Zealand possession on Saturday night but Michael Cheika was insistent Tatafu Polota-Nau’s late arrival in camp had no bearing on the performance.
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MICHAEL Cheika says Tatafu Polota-Nau’s late arrival from England had no bearing on the Wallabies’ shocking lineout performance against the All Blacks.
Australia lost seven of their own throws to gift New Zealand valuable possession, and the Kiwis punished the home side at ANZ Stadium.
Polota-Nau was a surprise starter at hooker having joined camp at the start of last week in Cessnock after a season in England.
“It’s not like he arrived today, he’s been here for two weeks, had plenty of practice,” Cheika said.
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“And it wasn’t just him, it was Tolu (Latu) as well, with the lineout combinations.
“I thought he actually did pretty well, first game of the season, he was right in it.”
The Kiwis will certainly target the lineout again next Saturday in Auckland, and Cheika is hopeful but not certain it can be turned around.
“We’ll find out, won’t we?” Cheika said.
“We need to. I get it, that’s a really important issue that we need to sort out for possession, but it can’t be used as an excuse because some days that’s what happens.
“We’ve got to keep coming back there and putting our bodies on the line to defend, and get the ball back another way, through turnover or aggressive defence.”
Cheika said his side need to throw in much quicker in the second Bledisloe.
“Often with lineouts, when it goes like that, there’s one or two things wrong in different areas that accumulate into a bunch of them,” Cheika said.
“I thought we were just a little bit slow to get set up and going.
“They’re a good defensive lineout, we gave them too much chance to get into the picture.”
Cheika said the numerous scrum penalties given against his side by referee Jaco Peyper were “a bit weird”.
“The scrum was dropping to the ground, it could have been anyone, I don’t know why the calls went against us,” Cheika said.
Reserve tighthead prop Taniela Tupou, ruled out late of the Test, is expected to overcome his hamstring injury to play at Eden Park.
Starting prop Sekope Kepu suffered a cut over his eye but is also expected to be fit.