Michael Cheika: I may have misled the public but I didn’t lie
Wallabies coach Michael Cheika has revealed why he deliberately misled the public on Kurtley Beale’s omission from the team against England — do you buy his excuse?
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Wallabies coach Michael Cheika deliberately misled the public on Kurtley Beale’s omission from the team against England because he believes keeping team sanctions in-house is more effective than having them publicised.
Cheika was asked by reporters on Thursday why Beale was not selected, and said it was a mix of form and the different way he wanted his midfielders to play at Twickenham, hoping to keep news that Beale and Adam Ashley-Cooper had actually been punished from the media.
That backfired when the story broke on Friday, and Cheika had to concede that Beale and Ashley-Cooper had been dropped for bringing three women, one Ashley-Cooper’s sister-in-law, back to their team hotel in Cardiff a fortnight ago against team rules.
Cheika said making that public on Tuesday, when he decided to drop the pair, would have been counter-productive to what he is trying to achieve as coach.
“It’s more effective where there’s that silent type of approach,’ Cheika said.
“Often when you’re doing these things and you broadcast and you send out a news release, you’re trying to appease others.
“My goal here, and our goal as a team, is to set standards inside our own team that we come up to all the time.
“Sometimes players might lack discipline at training and that might cost them a start — nothing is ever said about it, no one comes out and makes an official statement, I’ve done that myself.”
Cheika denied that he had outright lied in his press conference when answering questions about Beale’s surprise axing.
“I said he has been in and out of form this whole year, which he has been, he was on the bench last week [against Italy],” Cheika said.
“I considered leaving him out of the team last week on form.
“I know that’s your mentality to think everything is a cover-up, but it’s not, I want to be really clear.
“If there’s a third party involved [who made a complaint], 100 per cent, we’ve got to have absolute clarity on how we deliver because there’s other people.
“But inside of the team, I answer to Rugby Australia, they understand what’s happening inside of the team, and they’re fully supportive of what we’ve done.
“I don’t think I need to come out and tell anyone just for the sake of it.
“Once it comes out and there’s whispers, then I have to set the record straight, which is what I’m doing.”
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Originally published as Michael Cheika: I may have misled the public but I didn’t lie
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