Teddington: Michael Cheika threw himself back in his chair, clutched his heart in mock-pain, grabbed his throat with both hands, and shouted “Poltergeist!”
Seconds earlier, the Australia coach had said two words he thought he’d never utter.
“All Blacks.”
Cheika was thought to be playing mind games in the lead-up to Saturday’s Rugby World Cup final by never referring to New Zealand as the All Blacks, their famous and - to some - intimidating nickname.
But he said he never has called them that - until being prompted by a journalist in a news conference on Thursday.
“Can I say All Blacks now?” he repeated to the questioner, before his theatrical reaction.
“If you notice, I never call Australia the Wallabies, either,” Cheika added, composing himself. “I’m really a bit old-fashioned in that way. I think Australia is Australia and New Zealand is New Zealand, and France is France and it’s a battle between nations on that stage.
“There’s no secret squirrel.”
And as for him and his team being intimidated by the All Blacks, Cheika was clear.
“I’ve played in teams that have been lower on the table and maybe haven’t been expected to beat bigger teams,” he said. “But I’ve never felt worried about it. It’s just, you go out there and you do your best and you see what happens.”
Cheika was in good form two days out from the final at Twickenham. He has been trying to keep things low key before Saturday - “he’s making it the calm before the storm,” Wallabies prop Scott Sio said - even though it is the biggest game of his life, as a coach or a player.
The Australia camp has been like that all tournament, and that calmness has transferred to the field. There was no panic among the Wallabies when they went behind with five minutes left against Scotland in their quarterfinal, or when defending with 13 men for a spell against Wales in the pool stage. Or when Argentina was piling on the pressure in the second half of the semifinal.
Former Australia coach Bob Dwyer has even called the current Wallabies the best defensive team ever, which Cheika played down. Australia has conceded five tries this tournament, three of them sloppy ones against Scotland.
“I’m not in for the big sweeping statements - I’m a big believer that your next game is the one that proves who you are,” Cheika said. “The minute you start relying on cliches or tags or titles, you’ll get pinched. It’s happened too many times.”
Cheika has, though, underscored the importance of defense on Saturday.
“Putting your bodies on the line for each other in the games and working hard for each other and doing a lot of the stuff that we know on Saturday is going to be absolutely essential, the stuff people won’t even see,” he said. “The stuff that maybe we don’t need a lot talent to do and just doing that with unlimited energy.”
