All Blacks coach Steve Hansen labels Wallabies counterpart Michael Cheika a ‘Mickey Mouse coach’
After copping a quip that Mickey Mouse could coach the All Blacks, New Zealand coach Steve Hansen turned his attentions to Wallabies counterpart Michael Cheika — and it was far from flattering.
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Michael Cheika was described as “Mickey Mouse” by All Blacks rival Steve Hansen, and as Australia launched their 2019 Super Rugby season, there was a comical element to the start of this World Cup year.
The Wallabies have no attack coach, with Cheika instigating the sacking of Stephen Larkham, a move confirmed on Monday.
With Rugby Australia having appointed Scott Johnson late last year to the role of director of rugby, no decision on the new attack coach will be made until he arrives in Australia.
Problem is, Johnson is still tied up with Scotland and has vowed not to do any Wallaby-related work until their Six Nations campaign ends on March 17.
It will take at least a fortnight for Johnson to relocate, get his head across the various issues plaguing the national team, and then with Cheika and the RA board make a decision on Larkham’s replacement, although it is shaping as Matt Taylor, who is also working with Scotland.
Australia’s new attack coach will start working in April, and their World Cup campaign kicks off on September 21, giving them less than five months and four Rugby Championship Tests to familiarise themselves with players and devise a strategy to take home the William Webb Ellis trophy.
Cheika and Larkham disagreed on the attacking tactics of the Wallabies game plan.
At his end of year presentation to the RA board, Cheika identified this as the biggest problem, after his side lost nine of 13 Tests — the worst win percentage since 1958.
He also fought for defence coach Nathan Grey and forwards coach Simon Raiwalui to remain.
RA chief executive Raelene Castle said they backed Cheika’s judgment about his assistants.
“That was part of the review process that Cheik presented, the rationale as to why he felt the attack was the piece that as we’ve said the alignment wasn’t quite right and we haven’t believed we’ve performed in that space, so that’s where we believe we’ll get the biggest improvement in Wallaby performance,” Castle said.
But the cash-strapped RA was so keen to retain Larkham they created a new job for him; mentoring coaches and players in the under-20s, Wallaroos and Sevens teams.
So after the worst Wallabies season in the professional era, one coach has been added, another has been moved to a new role, one is yet to be appointed, and nobody has been punted from the organisation.
“It’s a no-win situation, you don’t do it and everyone critics you for letting them go and not having the systems in place, and you do do it and people criticise you,” Castle said.
“So what I say is, we’ve now got a structure with Scott Johnson leading it that will allow us to build a world-class high performance system for our rugby.
“When you have someone like Stephen who has got eight years at that national and international level, you want to make sure you don’t lose their IP so it was really important for Rugby Australia to make sure we kept that.
“We are looking to replace him and we have identified some targets, we’re working through that at the moment.
“We’d like Scott Johnson to be involved in that process, he doesn’t arrive until mid-March, so that’ll be part of the timing.”
And with his own impeccable timing, Hansen threw his own barbs from across the ditch when reminded at a charity function that Mark Ella had said “Mickey Mouse could coach the All Blacks to victory”.
“They’ve got Mickey Mouse coaching Aussie,” said Hansen, who has baited Cheika for years.
“Michael Cheika, who by the way isn’t a bad bloke, he just gets a bit emotional, and as you well know we thought we’d get him emotional and take his mind off the job.
“I guess what we’re trying to do there is take his mind off the job and while I say he’s not a bad bloke, he’s got to control his emotions.”
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