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Friday 23 November 2018 17:08, UK
Michael Cheika has rejected suggestions Australia are in "disarray" after Kurtley Beale and Adam Ashley-Cooper were dropped for Saturday’s game against England for disciplinary reasons.
The veteran Wallabies backs have been punished after Cheika was told they had brought women into their hotel room in Cardiff earlier this month. Australia lost 9-6 to Wales on November 10.
It is a further setback to a squad that will also be without David Pocock through injury but Cheika is confident the decision will benefit his players over the long term.
"I think disarray is a little bit harsh," Cheika said. "This is an equivalent to someone being late or missing curfew and the punishment has been dealt down.
"If anything, it is a team that has got clarity on where it wants to go. They are maybe not perfect now, don't get me wrong. We are not claiming to be the king of anything.
"We have got a period of time to get where we want to go and we want to take the steps to do that.
"If anything, it shows direction, not the opposite."
The decision not to consider Beale and Ashley-Cooper for selection was reached after a senior leadership group, believed to consist of captain Michael Hooper, Pocock, Nick Phipps, Allan Alaalatoa and Samu Kerevi, came to Cheika to express their concerns.
Hooper explained: "It came to our attention last week and we were well into that week so the idea there was to focus on the game [against Italy], get through that, and then look to deal with that afterwards.
"As a group, largely we have moved on from that. We had to make the decision and then move on with it.
"It was a relatively small deal as far as the actual thing that happened."
Cheika is happy to see his players holding each other accountable.
"The players took their time in deciding what they wanted to do with it," Cheika said. "We have got a pretty good young leadership team that are learning the ropes around what they want.
"I think it is really important for Australian rugby to build some strong leadership around Michael [Hooper] who has done really well as a captain over the last couple of years but is still very young.
"His group around him wanted to take their time in assessing and then they came to me with what they thought was necessary.
"Obviously there is disappointment there for sure and they are disappointed.
"If we want to compete with the best, all the small shortcuts have to be gone, on and off the field. Some might consider it a bit too harsh but I think the leadership showed a lot of courage coming to me to point it out. They want to set a standard here.
"We have had an inconsistent season because we have often taken, I think, a few shortcuts this year when we have needed to go harder and go to the well a little bit more and dig a bit deeper.
"We got together after the Argentina game in particular and said we have needed to get tougher on the little things, whether it is jogging into the water at training or making sure our off field is exactly how the team says. It is more from a respect point of view.
"Even though this was a minor thing I felt like, if you keep a grey area there, the grey gets bigger so you may as well make a stand on it."
While Cheika did say he was disappointed with the actions of Beale and Ashley-Cooper, he is pleased with how they have responded since being informed they would not play at Twickenham.
"To make the decision is hard for the lads," Cheika admitted. "They were very apologetic. They realise the error in their judgement and they have been very, very proactive in trying to help the others get ready for tomorrow's game."
Hooper hopes the incident will send a message to the squad.
"When we say we are going to put a line in the sand it is important we stick to that," Hooper said.
"We have got big goals as a team, so to be able to achieve those you have got to be able to do what you say you are going to do. We did not on this occasion."
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