Michael Cheika lauds Folau's performance despite late blunder

Michael Cheika lauds Folau's performance despite late blunder

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika has come to Israel Folau's defence over his performance on the wing despite his extra time blunder that could have won the game for the Wallabies.

Folau started on the wing for the first time in five years for the Wallabies, in a test match, with Dane Haylett-Petty starting in Folau's regular 15 jersey.

 

The tactical switch was to increase Folau's impact on the match and it worked brilliantly for the Wallabies with Folau finishing the game with more runs (13) and more metres gained (127) than any other Wallaby player.

 


"We had a strategy to move him around a fair bit like that, both in attack and defence, and I think it went quite well," Cheika said.

"I thought he had a lot of touches and he played well with the touches that he had."


 
Folau scored a fantastic try in 19th-minute stepping past multiple Argentinian defenders but his performance will be remembered for his inexplicable decision not to pass to Bernard Foley, who had a clear run to the try, on the siren.
 
 
Folau could have sent the ball out to Foley who was completely open and would have surely score or he could have tried to score the try himself with a number of Los Pumas defenders still to beat.

 

The Wallabies coach was not going to lay the blame of the result on his star outside back.

"I think that to put everything into the last play of the game is a bit naive for us," he said.

"Yes, you could have maybe got the win but you shouldn't be in that situation in the first place with the amount of opportunities we had beforehand and the amount of times we've let those opportunities go.

"It should have been well and truly finished before then.

"I still would have taken winning, mind you, don't get me wrong.

"But if you're fair dinkum you don't want to be letting that cover up other issues."

 

Story via: stuff.co.nz

In this Article

Latest News