Australia coach Michael Cheika launched a blistering attack on referee Romain Poite after his team lost to New Zealand 29-9 on Saturday, saying he was “bitterly disappointed” at the Frenchman’s treatment of Wallabies captain Stephen Moore.
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Video footage of Franks appearing to gouge the Wallabies lock Kane Douglas during a maul early in the match in Wellington emerged after the niggly game. “I asked Alain Rolland last week when I saw him in Sydney and he said: “No, that’s a surprise to me, ‘ but it’s pretty blatant to anyone listening to the ‘refs” ears, ‘” Cheika said.
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has flatly refuted a Wallabies’ allegation he had a secret meeting with referee Romain Poite before the second Bledisloe Cup Test.
It was a far closer game than their previous encounter in Sydney last weekend after Australia displayed a much tighter defence compared to their performance last weekend.
But with injured trio Matt Toomua, Matt Giteau and Rob Horne not expected to be back for Australia’s next Rugby Championship assignment against South Africa, Cheika said he would be sticking with Cooper and Foley for the foreseeable future.
Hansen says his relationship with the man who usurped him as World Rugby’s coach of the year in 2015 – despite the All Blacks defending their World Cup crown – is cordial.
“When you turn up to a lineout it’s just about looking at what they’re going to throw at us”, he said.
“I don’t think there’s one specific [area to work on], it’s that one percent in three or four lineouts that are just one person being that one percent off and then they [the opposition] get an opportunity to get into the lineout”.
“Rugby is an important game, it’s a lot more important than just us, we need them to be playing well and getting people to go along and watch them in Australia”, Hansen said.
“You’ve got to be really, really careful until you see all the views, and social media I think alerted everyone to it”.
“It’s a tough market over there because you’ve got some other sports claiming part of the market”. “They were pretty unlucky last time”, he added reference to the Pumas’ last-gasp loss to the Springboks in Nelspruit last week.
“Perhaps we let it get to us a little bit in the first half”. The ploy worked to an extent, the All Blacks leading only 15-9 at half-time courtesy of two tries by Israel Dagg and a conversion and penalty from Beauden Barrett.
The unpredictability of his game, which could tear teams apart when he was at his best, has also largely disappeared since he suffered a bad knee injury at the 2011 World Cup.
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“At the moment we’re on a bit of a roll and things are going good for us”.
