David Campese says players must take more responsibility as pressure mounts on Michael Cheika
David Campese has backed Michael Cheika to stay on as Wallabies coach, saying the players had to take greater responsibility for their mistakes and if a coach is to blame, it should be Rod Macqueen.
AS and player and a pundit, David Campese has never been one to follow the crowd, always willing to go it alone and take risks on the field and speak his mind off it.
Now, the ultimate rugby showman has dived into the raging debate over whether Michael Cheika should remain as the Wallabies coach, and it’s no surprise that his view differs from almost everyone else.
Campese does blame the coach for the diabolical mess the Wallabies have got themselves in at the moment, but he’s not pointing the finger at Cheika.
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Instead, Campese reckons the root cause of Australia’s problems can be traced back to the man who coached the Wallabies to victory in the 1999 World Cup.
“I might get into trouble here but I think it started with Rod Macqueen because he was a very structured coach,” Campese said.
“Winning was great but we actually forgot where we came from. Now we need to get back to the grassroots before we go forward.”
Campese’s criticism of Macqueen’s pick-and-go tactics is sure to attract criticism because he appeared to have the Midas touch during the four years he was in charge.
As well as winning the World Cup, the Wallabies won the Bledisloe Cup four times in a row under Macqueen, as well as the Tri-Nations in 2000 and beating the British and Irish Lions in 2001. Over the course of his career, the Wallabies had a winning ratio over 80 per cent.
Cheika’s success rate is less than 50 per cent, prompting calls for his immediate sacking, but Campese insists Cheika deserves to keep his job with the start of the World Cup now less than 10 months away.
“I don’t think it’s too late to change but Cheika’s the coach,” Campese said.
“I don't think you can change it, I just think you've got to a bit smarter about how we play and utilise the plays a lot better and try and play a style of rugby that’s actually going to keep the opposition guessing instead of knowing exactly how we’re going to play.”
Campese said Cheika’s tactics were not the problem as much as the players, who were letting the team down through simple errors, such as dropped balls and missed tackles.
"This is the problem. You can't blame a coach. Players play,” he said.
"The coaches give you skills. It's up to the players to go out and play the game.
"There's a lot of talk about coaches, especially, today but why do we panic and look for an overseas coach straight away? New Zealand don't, South Africa don't."
Campese also refuted the perception that Cheika was a control freak, saying he often caught up with him over coffee and they would bounce around ideas, even if he didn’t always follow them through.
“Cheik is a teammate, he'll always listen and he's open to ideas if it's going to help,” Campese said.
“You can go in with something and he says that's not actually trying to do that now. It's a confidence thing as well. Every time we lose, the media just rip into him, rightly or wrongly.
“It's not the coach that plays the game. The players have got to take some responsibility.”