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Video - Cheika makes some remarkable claims in post-match press conference

Wallabies head coach Michael Cheika insisted Australia should have been able to see off Scotland, despite Sekope Kepu’s red card.

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Kepu was sent off as hosts Scotland ran riot at Murrayfield on Saturday, embarrassing the Wallabies 53-24.

A moment of madness from Kepu proved costly for Australia, who led 12-10 at the time of the lock’s dismissal following a shoulder into the head of Hamish Watson in the 39th minute.

Scotland capitalised on their numerical advantage but Australia boss Cheika refused to use it as an excuse after the Wallabies’ European tour ended in horror fashion.

“I thought we still could have won with 14, to be honest,” Cheika said. “We came back and started off the second half very well.

“We just had to keep believing in what we wanted to do and instead we didn’t. We threw away the ball.

“We had less players and if you throw away the ball that is sort of what is going to happen. It’s definitely unfortunate but definitely not the red card – that happens in matches.

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“I don’t think it was a turning point.”

It was not the farewell Stephen Moore had hoped for as the 129-cap star made his final appearance.

Speaking about Moore, a veteran of three Rugby World Cups and Australia’s second-most capped player behind George Gregan, Cheika added: “I don’t think a player’s career is summarised by one match, any match or a moment in the game.

“His attitude and character will be imprinted on this squad going forward. I’ve been lucky to have him involved from 2015 and beyond.

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“Considering our situations over the last few years he has been an outstanding help to me. We’ve had a lot of battles, on and off the field, and he’s kept the team up and hungry all the time.”

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J
JW 43 minutes ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

This piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.


I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.


Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.


The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.

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