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Cheika's referee rage a reputational and strategic risk for Wallabies

Michael Cheika
Cheika was out-coached by Eddie Jones, with England playing smart wet weather football. Photograph: Dan Mullan/Getty Images

The Wallabies are in danger of gaining a reputation as the ugly Australians.

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika’s incandescent rage against the refereeing in Australia’s record 30-6 loss to England at Twickenham on Sunday morning was an unpleasant, but recurring, feature of the game. The Wallabies have now lost five straight Tests against England, including four defeats last year. Cheika has heavily criticised the refereeing after each loss.

At Twickenham, Cheika’s anger over the refereeing was on full display during the course of the game, overshadowing the match itself. Cheika applauded ironically when Wallabies captain Michael Hooper was denied a try by the television match official (TMO) for being offside, and appeared to mouth the words “fucking cheats.”

He was again beside himself after Hooper, now the most yellow-carded player in Test history, and fullback Kurtley Beale were sin-binned in the first-half. And when an English television reporter tried to raise the alleged “cheats” comment with Cheika after the game, he walked out of the interview in disgust.

It is the second week in a row a Test coach has been caught swearing on television after England coach Eddie Jones called his players “fucking stupid” during their unconvincing win against Argentina. The difference was the apologetic Jones’ ire was directed at his players, while Cheika was seething over the refereeing.

Is this really the image Australian rugby union wants to project to the world? And is this kind of behaviour helpful or harmful to the Wallabies’ chances of winning the 2019 World Cup in Japan?

To be sure, the Wallabies were on the wrong side of several controversial decisions by New Zealand referee Ben O’Keeffe and the TMO.

First, a kick by England halfback Ben Youngs was viewed several times by the TMO to see whether the ball had gone out before a try was awarded to winger Elliot Daly. Then, Wallabies winger Marika Koroibete had a potentially match-levelling try disallowed in the 70th minute after replacement hooker Stephen Moore was penalised for obstruction. This was the turning point in the game. Two minutes later England outside-centre Jonathan Joseph slid over to score after regathering a brilliant kick by replacement halfback Danny Care. At 20-6, that was pretty much the game.

The fact England received the rub of the green on all of these important decisions may have been too much for Cheika to bear, but each of the decisions was correct. What are a referee and a TMO to do? Even up the 50/50 calls to maintain the appearance of fairness, or call the game as they see it?

At the moment, Cheika has the look of a man who feels the world is against him and seems to be adopting a siege mentality. If this is a deliberate strategy, Cheika may need to re-think it, because he runs the risk of putting the world’s best referees offside. Even if it is just a matter of Cheika losing his cool, it is an issue that Rugby Australia needs to address.

By focusing too much on the refereeing, the Wallabies are in danger of overlooking their own short-comings.

Both Cheika and Jones learned their craft on the sun-baked turf of Coogee Oval, and they often espouse the virtues of Randwick’s famous running game. But Jones is an older and wiser coach these days. On a cold, rainy day at Twickenham England played wet weather football, while the Wallabies tried to play with the ball in hand, making handling errors in the slippery conditions. The inability of the Wallabies to react quickly to England’s deft tactical kicking was a major cause of their downfall.

Another cause for concern for the Wallabies was how badly they fell away at the end of the game, conceding 17 unanswered points in the last 24 minutes.

When both teams went to the bench England were clearly superior. Jones referred to his replacements as “finishers”, the term Cheika once used to describe his substitutes.

The Wallabies play Scotland at Murrayfield in their last Test of the year next Sunday. Perhaps it will serve as a reminder of Australia’s great escape against the Scots in the quarter-final of the 2015 World Cup after a controversial refereeing decision – a time when the world was not seemingly out to get them.