Australia coach Michael Cheika said Clive Woodward might be right as far as he was concerned when he labelled the Wallabies “not the brightest” team ahead of their crunch World Cup clash against England at Twickenham on Saturday.
If Australia win this weekend it will mean England, beaten 28-25 by Wales last weekend, become the first World Cup hosts not to qualify for the knockout stages.
Woodward, England’s coach when they beat Australia in the 2003 World Cup final in Sydney, told Friday’s Daily Mail Cheika’s men could fold under pressure.
“Contrary to popular belief, they are not the brightest team, they give away penalties and pick up yellow cards when they’re stretched,” he said.
Cheika, who speaks several languages, responded to Woodward’s comments by telling a Twickenham news conference on Friday: “Mr Woodward’s right, I only got 300 out of 500 in my high-school certificate.
“My mother wasn’t happy with the results, I can assure you. She begged me to study harder. But somehow I got through, I don’t know how — fluked it, I suppose.
“Sometimes it’s not intelligence but emotional intelligence that helps in this game — it’s not the IQ (intelligence quotient) it’s the EQ (emotional quotient).
“So hopefully we’ve got a bit of EQ amongst us. We are loving our time together and we are doing our best for our country.
“I understand it’s all a bit of fun and games and a bit of a snipe here, a snipe there, I’m pretty comfortable with all that stuff,” added the 48-year-old.
Australia, who have won both of their ‘Pool of Death’ matches so far, against Fiji and Uruguay, will go through to the quarter-finals with victory on Saturday.