“He’s really stepped in term of leadership this year, he’s got the confidence in his own game which helps so he can be really confident in giving messages and he’s really driving the team round well at the moment”.
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“From an intent point of view, putting their bodies on the line for the match, the contest, I was more pleased with the performance in that regard and that’s something we’ve got to build on”, he said. With their Bledisloe Cup hopes dangling by a thread, Australia must secure their first victory on New Zealand soil since 2001 in order to have any chance of clinching the cup.
The allegation against Franks wasn’t the only invective directed against the New Zealand side following their 29-9 victory: The Australian Rugby Union is understood to have filed a complaint with World Rugby over a pre-match meeting between All Blacks coach Steve Hansen and match referee Romain Poite.
However, Hansen said on Sunday he hadn’t met Poite.
All Blacks prop Owen Franks under scrutiny from Wallabies for alleged eye-gouging incident.
“It’s not true, unless you count saying “G’day” to him in the morning, because he stayed at this hotel”, Hansen said.
Hansen conceded that he and scrum coach Mike Cron had met South African whistler Jaco Peyper, who controlled last week’s Test in Sydney, and was an assistant in Wellington.
“We’ve broken it down this week and had a look at each person and what he can do to make a difference this weekend and feel like we’re in a pretty good space there, so we’ll see how we go”. The Wallabies were limp and ineffective in defence last week, missing more than 40 tackles, a sure sign of a side who are completely out-of-sync emotionally as much as technically.
“It’s a hard game to ref, so why wouldn’t you have the meeting?”
“There’s a process and that process is followed and whoever was running it has obviously seen all the angles and believes there’s nothing to answer for”. We don’t meet the ref (beforehand) and haven’t done for about 18 to 24 months.
Australia survived a 10-minute period either side of half-time without Adam Coleman – who was sin-binned for a late shoulder charge on Ben Smith – but even with 15 men they were powerless to stop New Zealand crossing for their third try on 47 minutes.
“In the same game you can go to two or three other lineouts where they’re driving and the same thing happens”.
“I suppose you expect that in a high pressure game”. “They don’t try to talk to (the referee) about everything”.
“If there’s no case to answer, there’s no case to answer”.
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Hansen said he had nothing to add regarding Cheika’s strong post-match comments on the incident.
