Mood turns grey over Irish ‘cancer’ slur aimed at Pocock

Michael Cheika’s jovial mood faded quickly when informed of comments labelling David Pocock ‘a cancer on the game’.

David Pocock trains with the Wallabies in Melbourne ahead of tomorrow night’s second Test.

Michael Cheika has been in a jovial mood throughout the Irish series, certainly after winning the first Test in Brisbane but even before, but his face clouded over when told former Irish lock turned newspaper columnist Neil Francis had labelled David Pocock “a cancer on the game”.

There is, as they say, “form” where Cheika and Francis are concerned. When Cheika’s Leinster team almost came to grief after losing two matches in the pool round of the 2008-09 Heineken Cup, Francis wrote a scathing column in which he referred to Leinster as “lacklustre ladyboys”, going on to describe their performance against Castre as “a disgraceful, gutless, leaderless, spineless performance and one which embellishes the reputation they have all over Europe”. And, just for good measure, he rated former Waratahs and Wallabies halfback Chris Whittaker — one of the most beloved players in the game — “close to the worst player on the pitch”.

What made the criticism all the more delicious was that it was written in the same season that Leinster beat Leicester Tigers to win their first European crown.

The following year, Cheika left Leinster to become head coach of Stade Francais, in the process handing the coaching reins over to Joe Schmidt — the man now opposing him as Irish coach.

But where Cheika speaks fondly of his time in Dublin and remarks how rare it is to coach against a Test side in which he has close friends — “I love those blokes. Just love my guys more” — clearly his circle of admiration does not include Francis, the former second-rower for Ireland with 36 Tests to his name.

What sparked his slap-down was Francis’ column in the Irish Independent in which he said he regards Pocock as “a cancer on the game … yes, I do have a grudging admiration for all his abilities and it is great when you have a player like that in your side. He had six legal turnovers and three illegal turnovers (in the first Test last Saturday) and he and his buddy Michael Hooper managed to slow the ball down more than enough to stop any rhythm that Ireland looked like they were beginning to achieve.” Asked for a comment, Cheika’s eyes narrowed as he replied: “That guy needs to choose his words a little better, I think, to be honest. It’s not a very nice thing to say. I’m not worried about what he thinks of Poey’s footy, I just think that’s not a very nice term to use. There’s people who are really sick out there. I’m not into that.

“He used to say a lot of stuff about us when I coached Leinster as well, some unflattering words he would use for his own publicity. That’s fine.”

Francis finished his summation of Pocock with these ominous words: “You have to make special preparations to counter Pocock.”

Earlier, Cheika had essentially agreed with Francis, although there was no suggestions that Ireland’s “special preparations” would extend to anything nefarious. This has, indeed, been basically a spite-free series to date.

”With Pocock, they’ll probably try to tie him up somehow, either by carrying ball at him or … I don’t know. But it’s going to be up to him to work his way out of it and get to the next thing, which it is for all footballers out there when they’re playing out there.

“It’s about the decisions you make on the run because the game changes very quickly from what you might have planned during the week and that adaptability is very important and Poey is one of the best at doing that. He can get his head around it nicely.”

It’s ironic that Francis spoke of Pocock’s “illegal turnovers” because the Wallabies believe he was hard done by on occasions, with referee Marius van der Westhuizen of South Africa refusing to believe his core strength was so developed he could bridge so precariously without resting his body weight on another player. Cheika accepted that was his interpretation.