Wednesday’s Rugby News sees Cheika receive full support from the board, a World Cup-winning captain backs the Wallabies for the 2019 World Cup, the launch of the National Rugby Championship and the Force question their future.
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Cheika maintains keys to the Castle
Michael Cheika has received the full backing of the board and CEO despite less than stellar performances across the two Bledisloe test matches.
CEO Raelene Castle has confirmed that Cheika will see out the rest of his contract with Rugby Australia, which is set to expire after the 2019 World Cup.
“He’s contracted through to World Cup. He’s got a plan, we’re across that plan, we’re comfortable with it,” Castle told reporters in Brisbane on Tuesday. “Certainly from our perspective, the board and myself, our support’s behind Michael Cheika.”
However, Castle admitted that the board, like the rest of the country, believes that the Wallabies and Cheika’s performance over the past fortnight has been unacceptable and can not be ignored.
“But clearly, you can’t just ignore the performances, they’re not acceptable.”
“So it’s about what can we do to support him as an organisation to make sure he’s got what he needs to make sure the Wallabies are successful as we lead into that World Cup.”
Castle singled out the defence as a grey area within the Wallabies play that must be improved for the side to be competitive and achieve success in upcoming matches.
“There’s different parts of the game we haven’t performed, particularly around our defence, and that would be something that we’ll be having a conversation about.” Castle said.
“I don’t think it’s about changing what we’ve got, it’s about what can we bring. We’ve got a wide rugby community that’s had significant success on the world stage.
“What can we use in those experts that are proud Australians that want to help the Wallabies to make sure that we can continue to be successful?”
Whilst this news is not what the majority of Wallaby fans would want to hear, it’s the safe move considering we’re nearly 12 months out from a World Cup. However, this time last year we had a change of coach and look what happened in the 2015 World Cup, so who knows.
The interesting part of Castle’s quotes was the open recognition of the failures that we have had as a team. Within most sackings, the ‘full support of the board’ line is generally the first step to the sacking of a coach, so I don’t think this is a closed matter at all.
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Nobody gives us a chance in the World Cup
Legendary World Cup-winning captain John Eales believes that the Wallabies will be serious contenders at the 2019 World Cup.
Speaking with the Fox Sports Podcast, Eales was adamant that Cheika would be able to rectify the current slump that the Wallabies are in, having lost 6 of their last 7 games.
“There is no doubt that they will be, I believe” Eales said. “Preparing for a World Cup… playing tournament football is very different because it is really just about surviving and getting through to the next week.”
“There’s different pressure and a period of time where you get all of you players, from wherever they are in the world, and they’re totally focused on the one direction of performing at the World Cup. Not every other team knows that they can beat every other team in the world because we have beaten every other team in the world in the last bit of time.”
Eales’ confidence stems from the belief that the depth that Cheika has introduced into the Wallaby side, especially within the tight 5, believing that this has set us perfectly for the future.
“Michael Cheika’s a very, very good coach, and he has a very good record. He’s had a tougher run in some of the bigger games against the All Blacks but he’s tasted victory in those games as well…It’s not an issue at this point in time.”
Eales was full of praise for the All Blacks, suggesting that daylight was a distant second in the current rugby pecking order and that Cheika’s reputation has suffered as a result of having to consistently play them 3 times a year.
“If anyone else played the All Blacks as regularly as we did, then their success rate over the last few years wouldn’t be much better if at all.”
“The All Blacks have speed, skill and intensity and they’ve got them at the highest levels”, he said. “Most other international sides will have one or two of those things at a high level and then be catching up on the others.”
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NRC heading back to the roots
The upcoming National Rugby Championship (NRC) will look to reconnect the game back to its grassroots in the 5th iteration of the competition in 2018.
Speaking at the launch on Tuesday, CEO Raelene Castle noted that the NRC’s connection with their local communities was critical for the future and success of the competition.
“It is a strategy that we’ve thought long and hard about because there’s nothing like that community feel,” she said.
“It’s great for the players…some of the boys in the NRC are from those clubs. That gives them a chance to play in front of their home grounds, which I think is important.”
The competition will run through September and October and will see 8 teams play games across multiple regional and suburban countries around the country along with games in Fiji.
“There are matches being played at local venues right across the country in 2018 and whether you are heading down to your local ground to watch your team or catching it through the live coverage of every match on FOX SPORTS, you are certain to be entertained with the quality of Rugby on offer in the NRC,” Castle said.
The competition will look to build on the tribalism that is thriving and flowing throughout clubland, with the teams strategically positioned to create a more immediate bond for fans with their local team.
“I think this year we have the mix really right with the more obvious connections,” she said.
“We think that will build the supporter base, because it’s more obvious which team you’d support.”
The 2018 season kicks off this Saturday as the Fijian Drua, back for their second year, host the Melbourne Rising in Nausori, Fiji whilst 2017 NRC Champions Queensland Country will also defend their title in a grand final replay against Canberra Vikings at 5 pm.
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Force left in Forest about future
Whilst on the NRC, its newest team, the Western Force, are still unsure about what their future holds once the tournament ends up.
The Force replace the Perth Spirit as WA representation in the competition and the side has spent this year playing in Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forest’s competition, World Series Rugby, after their expulsion from Super Rugby.
However, the 2019 version of the competition has not been confirmed yet, with speculation indicating that the competition could expand to include teams from Japan, Western Sydney and New Zealand and include a $1 million purse.
“We’re pretty excited as a playing group to see where it goes,” captain Ian Prior said.”We don’t actually know much more than you guys do – the commercial staff are working pretty hard upstairs and they keep that behind closed doors.”
Rugby Australia CEO Raelene Castle said the governing body remained in “very deep conversations” with Forrest about World Series Rugby’s future, potentially looking to merge or overlap with the competition with the current Super Rugby competition set for a revamp from 2020.
Meanwhile, the Force players were just happy to be back playing ‘real’ matches in a competition, in which they should be considered as one of the early favourites to win.
“We’re playing for competition points now,” skipper Ian Prior said. “We’re really looking forward to getting stuck in and then testing ourselves against everyone on the east coast.”
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