Australia coach Michael Cheika upbeat for Wallabies future
Sunday 1 November 2015 12:43, UK
Michael Cheika is positive for Australia's outlook despite his side losing in Saturday's World Cup final to New Zealand at Twickenham.
Two second half tries reduced the deficit from 18 points to four was a brave fightback from the Aussies but they were unable to get any closer to the All Blacks who ran out deserving 34-17 winners.
But Chieka, who only took over as coach in 2014, believes the future is bright saying New Zealand remain the benchmark for all international teams in world rugby.
Cheika said: "You just stay at it: keep trying to improve, keep testing yourself again. We're lucky we get to play them regularly and test ourselves.
"You've got to mark yourself against the best and I think we've made good ground over the last 12 months. We've got to keep growing. We want to do really good things for Australian rugby going forward. That's something that we want to keep doing.
"The more we test ourselves against South Africa, Argentina and New Zealand in the Rugby Championship, and against the Northern Hemisphere teams on tours, the better we'll get."
"We've been really honest with the way we've done things. It came pretty quick as a group for us though, and I think we've handled it well.
"I've been very, very proud of the team, there's not much more I could have asked them to do. And we came pretty close. We swung the momentum back even though the first-half didn't go our way.
"We changed the momentum of the game at 21-17. Even when we got seven points behind you get a try there and we're right back in the hunt.
"We could easily have gone home then, and said 'okay we're sweet', but the heart and the courage in the team that's been built and will last us going forward meant they didn't want to do that. They wanted to stay in the battle until the end, and they did."
