AS it emerged that Australian coach Michael Cheika is being investigated over television footage that showed him swearing at a refereeing decision during last weekend’s defeat at Twickenham, his players promised their only focus is on this weekend’s match and trying to get revenge over Scotland.
The coach’s fate would seem to depend on what he actually said. There was no sound, so it is a question of trying to read his lips and deciding if he included the word “cheat” – which he later denied – or something that looked similar.
He may also be in trouble after being reported to the Autumn International Disciplinary committee over an altercation with a fan when was leaving the coaches’ box after, in his words, getting a “gobful of abuse”.
It is all a potential distraction but according to Karmichael Hunt, their high profile rugby league convert, the players are keeping their eyes firmly on the game.
“We know it will be a hard task but we will be up for it,” he said.
“The Test match in June, where they beat us Down Under, is still at the back of our minds and we know we have a huge challenge on our hands.
“We are looking forward to facing them at Murrayfield; it will be the first experience for myself and a few of the other guys.”
Hunt, who was winning his second cap when the Wallabies lost to Scotland in Sydney, admitted that his side had been outplayed on the day but reckoned that one reason for that was the intensive fitness programme they had been put on ahead of that match.
“I was definitely a lot more fatigued than normal but that was just the task that was given to us.
“The plan that was laid out was that we were not going to be in tip-top shape but we were still good enough to go out there and compete,” he siad.
“There are definitely no excuses on our part, we definitely should have won that game but did not turn up with our best performance.
“It was as simple as that, not down to fatigue or anything like that, it was more execution at the end of the day.”
For all that, Cheika had been publicly dismissive of the team’s fitness level in the weeks leading up the three-match series against Fiji, Scotland and Italy and had decided to put that right while he had them in camp.
“The way he explained it to us was that though he wanted to win each game in June, the load in those weeks was going to be higher than normal because he wanted us to prepare for the end of the year.
“He is a master planner, he has been in the business a while and understands how to get teams up when it is most needed.
“The results have not gone entirely our way but I feel we are a much better team than we were in June,” Hunt added.
“They are adjusting our training load based on how the boys are feeling. The proof of the pudding is there.
“Even though we did not get the result at the weekend, we showed in that game and weeks prior that we are playing some of our best rugby of the year.”
He may have a point. After losing to Scotland, Australia went on to be thrashed by the All Blacks but, by the end of the campaign, were able to beat New Zealand and go on to beat Wales before falling to England in a match that was a lot tighter than is suggested by the 30-6 scoreline which was distorted by three late tries.
“I don’t really want to look back [on the Scotland game], it is a pretty tough memory,” Hunt admitted. “They just played better than us.
“I don’t think they kicked the ball too many times but at the end of the day, we shot ourselves in the foot.
“We got a yellow card [for a late tackle by fly half Bernard Foley] and they just ran over the top of us. They were pretty physical.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here