Australia coach Michael Cheika warned his players about the threat posed by World Cup opponents Fiji after the Wallabies wrapped up their World Cup preparations with victory over the US Eagles here Saturday.
An experimental Australia side pulled away to register a 47-10 victory over the Eagles at Chicago’s Soldier Field, the final match before Cheika’s men open their World Cup campaign against the Fijians in Cardiff.
Hear from Sean McMahon after his Man of the Match performance against @usarugby. #USAvAUS https://t.co/3pT8fusC1v
— Wallabies (@Wallabies) September 6, 2015
Australia, England and Wales are the three sides expected to be vying for the two quarter-final places on offer from the World Cup’s “Pool of Death” — but Cheika insists he is not looking beyond his team’s opening tie with Fiji.
Cheika believes the fact that so many Fijian players are now plying their trade at the highest level of the game in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres is cause for concern.
“Fiji are going to be a massive threat,” Cheika said.
“I’m not saying that with any type of lip service. I’ve coached in Europe, I’ve seen a lot of those players who are playing in Europe evolve over a long period of time.
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“Half of them are playing in the southern hemisphere in Super Rugby. They’ve got experience now of the top level of rugby provincially which they probably didn’t have before and I think they’re going to be a massive challenge.”
The unorthodox attacking threat posed by Fiji, who won the Pacific Nations Cup in July with victory over Samoa, meant Australia’s defensive game would need to be at its meanest, Cheika added.
“If there’s one area that we want to be solid on it’s probably defence,” he said. “We need to be rock solid there.”
Cheika believes the USA game had been useful preparation for the Fijian challenge.
“It was a good match for us because the physicality the American team brings would have been a really good test for our forwards,” Cheika said. “We knew they had some big hard runners. I think it was a really good match to have in this block of two weeks while we were here.”
