England crunch match: Is Australia playing mindgames by being nice?

Michael Cheika, head coach of Australia, poses for selfie photographs with fans. Photo / Getty

Nothing is going right for the English at this World Cup - and now they're complaining that Australia are messing with their minds by being "too nice" ahead of Sunday's do-or-die clash at Twickenham.

The English press says Wallabies coach Michael Cheika is being "un-Australian' by not behaving normally in the build-up to the match.

The respected Guardian newspaper asserted the Aussies are deliberately "coming over all modest and diplomatic", avoiding "a single barb or jibe" at the English and un-nerving them along the way.

"It is enough to make you yearn for Campo. Eddie Jones would never have stood for such tight-lipped anaemia. Unless, of course, he were cooking something up," wrote the Guardian.

The exasperation came after Cheika and the Wallaby players refused to bite when quizzed about England. They would not discuss this weekend's match. Nor would they offer any view on England's loss to Wales. No player would bite when asked if they would have shot for goal to tie the scores in the dying stages. They even claimed they didn't watch the game!

Many English papers indeed believe Cheika is playing mind games with the English, describing him as a "a model of decorum" compared to his predecessors such as Eddie Jones.

Reporters were allowed into Birmingham University's indoor swimming pool to watch the players go through their recovery systems ahead of transporting to London.

David Pocock and Michael Hooper will front the Wallaby team announcement on Friday which is being interpreted as Cheika likely to start both loose forwards as he did when the Australians rolled the All Blacks in Sydney last month.

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The Guardian described Cheika's approach to the meida at the World Cup as a "cloak-and-dagger operation" designed to ramp up even more pressure on the English.

The scrum is still perceived by the English as Australia's weakness but they have been reportedly working with Mario Ledesma, a former Argentina front-row, to remedy any weaknesses.

"He's a very passionate guy," Wallaby prop Ben McCalman said, "which does rub off on the players. He's turned the scrum into the responsibility of the whole eight, not just the front-rows."

Interestingly, the Guardian's lead rugby writer Paul Rees also described Australia as the form team of the tournament so far, saying they had settled faster than any other team including the All Blacks and were "back to their old ways" under Cheika.

"A squad that had seemed to be undermined by player power, to the extent that even the disciplinarian Robbie Deans failed to restore order, is now clearly under the control of one man," Rees wrote in joining former All Black Justin Marshall in saying the Aussies looked in better shape than the Kiwis.

Australia defeated England in the 1991 World Cup final at Twickenham, which followed a group victory over them in the inaugural tournament four years earlier. But their record in the tournament against England since has been less impressive; losing the 1995 quarter-final and the 2003 final and being overwhelmed in Marseille in the 2007 quarter-final.