Clowngate: Cheika is definitively a clown

Clowngate: Our Aussie cartoonist hits back at Michael Cheika 3:59 PM Sunday Oct 23, 2016

The Herald's Aussie cartoonist Rod Emmerson today hit back at Wallabies coach Michael Cheika's outburst.

"Cheika may be pissed at the artwork, but he'll be even more pissed when he realises I am Australian, and his cousin dated my sister," Emmerson said.

Cheika was seething last night after being portrayed as an angry clown complete with red nose in a mock up picture in the country's biggest paper, the New Zealand Herald, alongside the headline "send in the clowns" on the match morning.

Veteran cartoonist Emmerson revealed he was given advance warning on the story, and the idea was to 'needle' Cheika a pinch before the match.

"That's what I did. It could have been seen as reverse psychology, hoping it would fire the Wallabies up somewhat to break the curse of Eden Park.

Instead, it got under his skin."

Emmerson explained his cartoon was partly in response to the Sydney-based Daily Telegraph portraying Richie McCaw as a witchetty grub on its front page, less than a week before the 2015 Rugby World Cup final.

"It is satire and nothing more," he said. "And a bit of payback for Witchetty Ritchie.

"It was a bit of a friendly shot across the bow - except, this took out the mast and sails instead. Ooops."

Cheika won't back down

In Sydney today, Cheika refused to be gagged, not backing down after All Blacks coach Steve Hansen accused his Wallabies counterpart of "hijacking" New Zealand's test world record celebrations.

In a sensational aftermath to Saturday night's 37-10 All Blacks victory in Auckland, Cheika took aim at the New Zealand media over being depicted as a clown and then claimed the All Blacks did not respect the Wallabies, suggesting they were involved in the media caricature.

Hansen later said Cheika needed to be bigger than to take a newspaper's barb to heart and said it was wrong to suggest the All Blacks could dictate what the media did.

But Cheika was still stewing upon his arrival back at Sydney airport 12 hours later.

"Why would you let the opposition call your team clowns and mock the jersey? That's how I feel about it," he said. "Maybe others don't. Maybe that's not the way. But I've never had an Australian jersey so I think it's something that should be treasured.

"We're going there for a good contest and I think they (All Blacks) are connected to it (the photo mock up) obviously because they are talking about it.

"That's my opinion and I'm entitled to voice my opinion, right or wrong."

World media reaction

Media around the world have picked up on the extraordinary 'Clowngate' row after Australia's 37-10 loss to the All Blacks.

British newspapers the Guardian, the Telegraph and the Daily Mail carried reports on All Blacks coach Hansen accusing Wallabies counterpart Cheika of "hijacking" New Zealand's world record celebrations.

Australian outlets Fox Sports and ABC News Online also waded in with prominent coverage of the spectacular post-game stoush.

ABC described Cheika as being "seething at being dressed up as a red-nosed clown in the New Zealand Herald on the morning of the match".

Hansen's comments came after Cheika unleashed on the All Blacks and New Zealand media following a "disrespectful" depiction of him as a clown in a cartoon on the front page of the Weekend Herald sports section alongside the headline, Send in the Clowns.

 claiming and spreading that conspiracy theory about the AB being behind the clown cartoo n without showing any probe is completely out of place,.... lying about the AB accusing him of the bugging is also out of place,.... but sticking with both nonsensenses definively lift him as the king of the clowns,... he's acting like a hooligan,... it's like if SARU appoint our fellow Beeno1 as their spokeperson,... really crazy

someone should tell him that he became the laughingstock all over the world,.... and now the wallies are heading to Great Britain,.... that will be funny,... British tabloids love this kind of stuff and gonna have a field day with him
Welsh are already calling to go to the game with red noses,...

 and the King of clowns continues with his ranting,...  sinking himself lower and lower


Michael Cheika blames Retallick for elbow to head 10:49 AM Monday Oct 24, 201 6

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika has deflected the blame, citing Brodie Retallick for a play that has Aussie flanker Dean Mumm suspended for one game.

Mumm was cited for striking Retallick with his elbow in the 52nd minute of Saturday's Bledisloe Cup test in Auckland and received a one match ban today from the judiciary.

The elbow appeared to hit Retallick around the neck or head region and was therefore deemed to have met the red card threshold by the citing commissioner, though the incident wasn't picked up by referee Nigel Owens at the time.

However, Cheika thinks it's Retallick's own fault for holding back the flanker illegally.

"I don't want to talk about it too much because there's a hearing to go but he [the citing commissioner] is not looking at all the action," Cheika told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"He [Mumm] is trying to get back from being held illegally."

Retallick can be seen holding on to Mumm just moments before the elbow, but the swinging arm warranted more attention.

Retallick could miss the All Blacks' end of year tour to Chicago and Europe due to concussion, but it is unclear whether this was linked to the elbow incident.

Wellington's Vaea Fifita is on standby to join the team in the US if Retallick fails concussion protocols.

- NZ Herald

 Cheikas a clown alrighty .Now that all the bullsh!t has been knocked outta the wobblies he can fit the whole team in one of those little clown cars beep beep !

 so according to the King of clowns, retaliation is the right thing to do,.... every time a player is grabbed ilegally (something that happens dozens of times, almost in every breakdown and by every team) that player can kick, stamp, punch or whatever he thinks is better for retaliation,....

can this clown sink lower?

 BP  he has a whole circus working on his clown skills .Its called the ARU !

With Cheika leadership are the Wobblies heading in the right direction? 3 wins out of 10 says he is going the wrong way or he is experimenting. I think the Wobblies looked better in the last test so maybe he is getting closer to knowing who should be selected. Can't wait to see them play the Poms.  The circus that will surround Cheika & Eddie Jones should be a laugh a minute.

 Yup thats the Wobblies new team bus alrighty Cheika is the beardy one under the bonnet hehehehe....Notice how Cheika has a "landing strip " on top of his head ?