Aisle be back: Bledisloe 2 and the NPC underway

Malo Tuitama crosses for one of his two tries in Sunday's Wellington Lions season opener against Otago.

I hate to say I told you so. No, no, I’m not.

So the hype about the Wallabies was just hype, once the first 40 played out.

And now the knives are out in earnest across the Tasman.

They should sheath them, not because the case against Michael Cheika isn’t a good one. That he’s been a dud, excepting that time they got into the world cup final when they shouldn’t have.

That the players probably aren’t listening. That his irascible world against me style is wearing very thin.

All true. But where’s the case for his replacement? Where is the super successful super coach waiting in the wings? Sound of tumbleweeds down the street of Dodge.

Whoever is fool enough to step in will be on a hiding to nothing.

The sad truth is that Australian rugby currently isn’t producing or cultivating the talent to compete.

Robbie Deans found that. Cheika has found it. The next coach will find it.

If Will Genia, a fine player, is still your number one halfback, after a fair few years, then you’ve got a problem. Where are the young bucks snapping at his heels. Is Bernard Foley, a solid enough operator, as good as it gets?

And Australia has been gutted of a lot of its star players over recent years.

Take away Israel Folau (injury just did, and anyway he’s one tweet from oblivion) and where are the class players? There’s certainly no John Eales on the horizon, or Michael Lynagh.

So the Aussies should stick with Cheika this close to the world cup. He’ll get them close or into the semis of the world cup and then it’s a crapshoot, who’s got the nerve and the nous o the day.

Not very ambitious I know, but realistic don’t you think.

Will it be closer this weekend? History tells us it will, or at least the experience of last year where the Wallabies bounced back in Dunedin.

But I don’t think so. I can see a big margin if not bigger. It could be ugly.

+++++++

The Lions did everything you could ask of them in overrunning Otago in their season opener, including Vaea Fifita storming around the field.

Normally a trip to Christchurch in the second round would be a quick cold shower for any expectations getting too high and mighty.

Not so perhaps after the champs were basically stuffed by Tasman last weekend.

On the other hand, was that the real Canterbury and who will show up this week.

Probably an outfit desperate to not repeat the losing experience.

So by the end of play, we’ll have a much better steer on where these two sides are respectively heading in 2018.

Kevin is a lifetime Hurricanes fan. He and his partner are on a two-year Volunteer Service Abroad posting to Vanuatu's Espiritu Santo island. He's working on a project to build a South Pacific World War 2 museum on the site of an enormous Allied base on the island. Check it out at www.southpacificwwiimuseum.com