Cheika happy with forwards, backs need finishing touches

Australia's coach Michael Cheika (not pictured) was happy with the team but admitted their are things that need some polishing. Photo: Photo: Christophe Ena/AP Photo

Australia's coach Michael Cheika (not pictured) was happy with the team but admitted their are things that need some polishing. Photo: Photo: Christophe Ena/AP Photo

Published Oct 11, 2019

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FUKUROI CITY – Australia coach

Michael Cheika gave his forwards a pass mark but said his backs

had plenty to work on as they stumbled towards a likely Rugby

World Cup quarter-final against England with a hard-fought 27-8

victory over Georgia on Friday. 

The Wallabies enjoyed overwhelming domination in possession

and territory at Shizuoka Stadium in their final Pool D match

but led only 17-8 going into the last six minutes against a

determined Georgia side. 

Cheika said it was just the sort of match he had been hoping

for his forwards and thought the Wallabies pack had delivered in

the trenches against physical opponents.

"I thought it was a good challenge, I thought our forwards

stepped right up to it, we know how effective the Georgian scrum

can be and I think we handled it pretty well," he said. 

"We scored a maul try, probably could have done a bit better

on a couple of those if we stayed more disciplined, our lineout

worked, so a good hit-out for the forwards.

"A few things we need to work on out the back but we'll get

to that this week."

Australia would have perhaps expected to have scored more

tries than the four they did – two adding a gloss to the

scoreline in the last five minutes – but Cheika thought it was

all fixable before the quarter-finals. 

"We're the lowest kicking team in international rugby, we

like to keep the ball in hand, we knew the conditions were going

to be tricky and I think we did drop a bit too much ball," he

said. 

"We carried a bit too much ball on our chest and in the

conditions that's going to happen and you are going to get more

ball slipping out, it's not like they were clean drops.

"But I believe our carrying was strong, we just didn't have

the finishing touch on a lot of stuff. So we'll definitely need

to put that on and we'll be ready to take the opportunities next

week." 

Australia could still win the pool if Wales suffer an

extraordinary upset against Uruguay on Sunday but Cheika was

clearly already looking forward to renewing his rivalry with

England coach Eddie Jones. 

Fullback Kurtley Beale made an early exit from the match

after taking a blow to the head in the 14th minute but Cheika

did not sound overly concerned about his availability for the

quarter-finals. 

"We'll go through the return to play protocols, we've got an

eight-day turnaround so plenty of time for all that," he said.

"He's feeling good in the dressing room right now so that's

good, we'll just take it as it comes." 

Reuters

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