FORMER AUSTRALIA COACH Michael Cheika has blasted outgoing Wallabies selector Michael O’Connor as “not qualified to be commenting” after he claimed their dire 2019 World Cup was “always going to end in tears”.
Cheika quit in October after Australia’s humiliating quarter-final exit against England, drawing the curtain on a five-year reign that started strongly but ended in criticism.
He has remained largely silent since, but spoke out after O’Connor told the Sydney Morning Herald this week team meetings were “awkward” and Cheika’s strategy confusing.
“Being a selector for Australia is a prestigious position,” Cheika, now a consultant with rugby league side Sydney Roosters, told the Rugby Australia website late Wednesday.
“I think it shows the disregard for it when that person’s talking like that about stuff that’s close to the team and is not really qualified to make those comments,” added the former Leinster coach.
O’Connor — part of a three-man selection panel with Cheika and rugby director Scott Johnson — claimed some players “quietly” told him they had reservations about the team’s strategy “but they weren’t strong enough to go to the coach and say ‘hey listen, we disagree’.”
He added that he was “disturbed” at the poor results he was witnessing at training.
“When you look back on it: what was it?” O’Connor, who played both rugby league and union for Australia, said of Cheika’s World Cup gameplan.
“That new attacking style he was going to bring to the Wallabies, it was so secretive … I don’t know. It was almost like a scam.”
He added: “It was always going to end in tears.”
Cheika’s tenure was marked by a successful 2015 World Cup campaign in which Australia reached the final, losing to the All Blacks.
But the final 18 months were much tougher and he admits he barely had a relationship with the Rugby Australia hierarchy.
“At a certain point sometimes where the line is crossed on what the truth is you have to stand up and say, ‘This is not right and that person shouldn’t be talking like that’,” he said of O’Connor’s criticism.
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And if he hadn’t tried to amalgamate the middle eastern countries to take control if it’s oil reserves by trading it in denar instead of dollars, he may well still be alive. Great to see Libya thriving today though under western democracy
@domas1507: I must add though that the counter argument would be that if we hadn’t delivered “democracy” then we would have lost control of a vital resource and we would possibly be the countries in turmoil. So it all depends on how you like you bread buttered I suppose
@domas1507: yeah, but more importantly, who won the match?
@Conoroconnor: Watch it tonight… Exclusively on RTE
@Gary Donlan: indeed I will. I have it set to record.
@Conoroconnor: ended 1-1
@domas1507: spoiler alert ffs!
The gas thing here is that Hughey made his close friend Larry Goodman a rich man because of sending beef to Libya. The same fella today has a monopoly on Irish beef factories because he holds the only offal license in the country. He uses this to keep the price of beef paid to farmers low.
Also look up the beef tribunal and how Haughey bailed out Goodman after the US invaded Iraq and Goodman went bankrupt.
Farmer gets €1200 for his product, he keeps them for 30 months. The factory and the supermarket get €1500 in profits for a few days work.
Each animal is worth about €2700 when sold to the consumer.
@great gael of Eire:Didnt know Hughey was friends with Larry Goodman. I’ve never seen him drinking in mccoys
@Peter Govan: Very good. Haha
Poor Gaddafi. Iti was probably the BSE beef that did it.