The united image the Australia squad have presented at the World Cup is neither a facade nor a public relations exercise, according to coach Michael Cheika.
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Wallaby after Wallaby has linedup to speak about how the squad atmosphere has been transformed and galvanised since Cheika replaced Ewen McKenzie last October.
And they now stand just three games away from World Cup glory, with a quarter-final against Scotland up first on Sunday.
“We like to speak the truth even if it exposes our faults,” Cheika said of how he changed the ethos in the dressing room.
His predecessor McKenzie endured a miserable 15-month spell in charge. It reached a nadir with a scandal last year involving lewd text messages sent by back Kurtley Beale to one of his staff, Di Patston.
The scandal spiralled out of control with Wallabies Michael Hooper and Adam Ashley-Cooper supporting Beale while Quade Cooper backed Patston.
McKenzie subsequently left, opening the way for Cheika to assume the post. Cheika has retained faith in Beale, who was fined for his part in the spat.
His attitude of treating players as “adults” – off-field antics are tolerated as long as there is no excess – has been one of the features of his stewardship. With other parts of the Cheika revolution, this has brought markedly better results on the pitch, including eight wins in their past nine matches.
“We don’t deal in advertising, that is fake,” he said at the team hotel. “We cannot present a false image as then it would be pointless for we would be lying to ourselves.
“We have to be our real self. Even if we don’t win all the time at least we will do it our way. We always speak the truth, but sometimes in the modern world nobody believes you when you are telling the truth.
.@WillGreenwood Michael Cheika has not made @Wallabies unbeatable #AUSvSCO. More here http://t.co/O1dZqn2lcW http://t.co/BMpvmiSLrH
— Sky Sports Rugby (@SkySportsRugby) October 12, 2015
“Even too if we haven’t played at the level we wanted to it isn’t necessary to change as the most important thing is to remain faithful to our image.”
Cheika, the only coach to have won both the northern and southern hemisphere continental club trophies with Leinster and the Waratahs in the European Cup and Super Rugby, says he sat down with the players and talked about how they saw themselves.
“We discussed what each of us thought is really the identity of the team, and what that means every day,” said the 48-year-old, who is the son of Lebanese immigrants who arrived with barely any money in Sydney in the 1950’s.
“It is good to put that on the wall and say that is who we are and this is how we are going to live the day, and our actions will make not just Wallaby supporters but all Australians proud of their team.
“Sometimes it is not results that count but the behaviour, character and values of the team which can say more to the people of the country, who are not maybe rugby supporters but watch the World Cup.”
Cheika, whose nomadic travels as a player and coach has seen him become a fluent speaker of English, French, Arabic and Italian, says he and his fellow coaches are trying to implement values he believes have disappeared from rugby.
“Queensland and Brumbie players are rivals during the Super Rugby season and then they arrive with us and we have to mould them into being team-mates and transforming all their different characteristics into pluses for us on the pitch,” he said.
“The time when players from different clubs breakfasted together one day and socialised with each other and then the next day went out and tried to kill each other on the pitch before then having a few drinks together afterwards is a side of rugby that has been lost.
“I would like to reinsitute the sense that we can be enemies on the pitch for our clubs but after it we unite together as Wallabies and can be great friends.”
