Michael Cheika on Quade’s redemption, Pocock’s year off, Folau’s future and fitter Wallabies
IN a wide-ranging interview, Wallabies coach talks about Quade Cooper’s chances, David Pocock, off-contract stars and the results of Australian rugby collaboration.
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WITH no other Super Rugby clubs in Australia interested in signing Quade Cooper, Wallabies coach Michael Cheika says he will source game tapes of Brisbane club rugby to monitor the Queenslander’s form this year.
Cheika stopped short of saying he’d pick Cooper out of club rugby but said the 70-Test five-eighth had expressed to him a burning desire to “prove people wrong” and win a spot back in the Reds team.
The Cooper revelations came in a wide-ranging Daily Telegraph interview with Cheika, in which the Wallabies coach also spoke about David Pocock, Izzy Folau, his World Cup plans and why losing heavily to Scotland last year can help Australia win the World Cup.
COOPER
Quade Cooper was cut adrift by Queensland coach Brad Thorn over summer, and he’ll earn $800,000 to play club rugby for Souths.
Cheika had hoped Cooper would be picked up by another Aussie team and confirmed such a switch was contractually possible if there was interest.
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But asked if there was any potential transfer in the works for Cooper, Cheika said: “Not at this point, no. I think he is very committed to proving people wrong and getting back into the Queensland side through club footy. It would be a great story if he does it.”
Cheika said he would be seeking game tapes of Cooper playing for Souths.
“For sure, I will be watching him for sure,” Cheika said.
“I am looking forward to the season starting. It starts too bloody late, it starts after Easter, the club comp. I would to see him start playing footy now.
“In speaking to him he is very committed to making it back that way (through Super Rugby), and proving himself.”
Cheika last picked Cooper in the June series last year, overlooking him for the Rugby Championship and Spring Tour squads.
POCOCK
Cheika admitted it was a “risky” decision to allow star flanker David Pocock to take a sabbatical season last year.
But the Wallabies coach explained his thinking was based on two elements: belief that Pocock’s influence at the 2019 World Cup would surpass 2015 World Cup heroics after a break, and that it could help create depth.
“Sometimes playing without people it makes other people step up and come to the fore,” he said.
“We wouldn’t be talking about Sean McMahon as much as we are right now if we never did that.
“If you can time that momentum so everyone is coming back and moving forward together at the right time, that’s ideal. It is a bit risky at the time but I believe it will come back to pay us back.”
IZZY, BERNIE AND HOOPS
There of the biggest stars in Australian rugby all come off contract at the end of this year: Folau, Foley and Hooper.
With the World Cup next year, that could elicit panic but Cheika says he’s relaxed and comfortable.
“We have prepared well for Israel, Bernard Foley and Michael Hooper, the captain of the team. There are a few other interesting contracts coming up too, around this time, with some of the younger fellas as well,” Cheika said.
“This block of them, I have felt really certain about what we need to do.”
RE-BUILD OVER
With Ireland arriving in June for a huge Test series, Cheika conceded the Wallabies’ annual trajectory — start slow, get rolling and then “peter out” — needs to be fixed, by starting higher and stay consistently level.
Increases in fitness levels with will be a big factor but so too will be Cheika this year bringing to an end the new-blood phase.
“I have always been very clear about what we needed to do since the World Cup to now. We haven’t just talked about it, we have done a full refit of the team.
“There are a lot of debutants who have come through — 25/26 and probably 20 of them are still in and around the team. We made a huge change. With the desire to get some experience under our belt to get into this year. Do we keep doing that going forward? No.
“We have to be more consistent at a higher level.”
FIT AND READY
Wallabies and Super Rugby coaches responded to last year’s dire Super results by agreeing to work together in a far more collaborative approach. Cheika and his Wallabies assistants Stephen Larkham, Nathan Grey and Mick Byrne have been attending franchise trainings, working with players on “core skills and habits”, along with offering analytical observations.
Tactical and positional decisions are all still the strict domain of each franchise, stressed Cheika, but the big upside to a process resembling centralisation-by-stealth is — already — increases in fitness.
“If I looked at the teams and their efforts in round one this year compared to round one last year, I saw already a significant lift (in fitness),” he said.
“And the numbers are showing it to us as well, the training numbers, everything. We’ll have to wait and see but from where we are now compared to last year, I think we are well ahead.”
SCOTS TO LEARN
Cheika said he was proud of the Wallabies’ growth last year, where they went from trailing New Zealand 40-6 at halftime in Sydney to almost beating the Kiwis a week later in Dunedin, and ultimately beating the All Blacks in Brisbane in October.
But the Spring Tour saw the good vibes come crashing down when England beat Australia 30-6 and Scotland hammer them 53-24 in two weeks.
“Shine (came) off, yes, but good lessons learned in the build-up to that week,” Cheika said.
“In what we can do better and what we have to do to stay consistent, right up to the last ten minutes of the English game and into the Scotland game.
“Staying in control and being in control of our own destiny. A lot of what happened in that seven or eight days will be a good driver of what we need to be doing going forward. That shows where we are at and we will be much better at that this year.”