Tuesday’s rugby news has Cheika urging patience, Kuridrani injured, Super Rugby on free-to-air and England looking to improve.
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Cheika urges players to keep faith
Wallabies coach Michael Cheika has urged his players to keep the faith in their game plan transition, insisting he won’t deviate from his vision for the team despite back-to-back losses. “Both play-wise and cultural, it just takes a bit of time. On a scale of one to 10 of where I want us to be, we’re probably a six,” Cheika said.
Australia will be attempting to avoid their worst spring tour of Europe since 2005 having won just one Test so far and set to face off against a tough English side this weekend.
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Kuridrani out for England Test
Cheika will be forced to make a change at outside centre for the England clash, with in-form 13 Tevita Kuridrani ruled out with an ankle injury. Kuridrani sustained the low-grade syndesmosis injury against Ireland and Cheika will likely shift Adam Ashley-Cooper from the wing to outside centre.
The Wallabies coach also made some interesting comments regarding the halves combination. “At a certain point you’ve got to start investing in a crew of playmakers that are going to do a job for you,” Cheika said, although this could just refer to current starters.
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Super Rugby thrown lifeline
The Super Rugby will finally receive free-to-air coverage in 2016 with Channel 10 agreeing to cover one match of the competition each week, albeit as a Sunday morning replay. Other free-to-air channels showed little interest in the Super Rugby, with ratings dropping 10% last year despite the success of the Waratahs.
Overall, the ARU will be boosted by $40 million in annual income from rugby union’s next broadcast rights, mainly due to a large increase in the amount UK broadcaster Sky Sports will pay SANZAR.
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English team must improve
English coach Stuart Lancaster has emphasised that his young team must improve on their previous performances to match the Wallabies this weekend. A run of five successive defeats ended with Saturday’s 28-9 victory over Samoa at Twickenham.
But Lancaster recognized that the team’s play against Samoa contained far too many handling errors and general tactical mismanagement. “Overall, the ability to play in the right areas of the field against a side like Australia will be important and we need to improve in that area,” he said.
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