adminTEDDINGTON. — The Australia team to take part in the Rugby World Cup final on Saturday has been transformed from a wild bunch into a chorus of angels with bruised faces.
Coach Michael Cheika took control one year ago of a squad whose off-pitch reputation had hit rock bottom and seen embattled coach Ewen McKenzie hand in his “sheriff’s” badge.
McKenzie’s reign was badly damaged by a spat over a lewd text messages sent by Kurtley Beale to team business manager Di Patstona.
In November 2013 he had publicly punished 11 of the squad – including present members Bernard Foley, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Nick Phipps and Scott Fardy – for consuming “inappropriate levels of alcohol” on a night out in Dublin.
Since Cheika strode into the Wild West that was the Wallaby camp, there has not been a peep of trouble. A repentant Beale has been restored to the squad.
The bruises present after they beat Argentina on Sunday were all acquired on the pitch.
Wallaby veteran scrum-half Will Genia agreed that Cheika had calmed down the wild bunch. — AFP.
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