Wallabies coach Michael Cheika telephones outraged fan Jack Quigley

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika has phoned outraged fan Jack Quigley, whose criticism of the team on Facebook was liked more than 40,000 times.

Irate fan Jack Quigley got his audience with the misfiring Wallabies in a surprising and honest phone call from Aussie coach Michael Cheika, Brisbane's Courier Mail reports.

He'd called himself a rugby "nobody" in an epic rugby spray on facebook last Saturday.

Now, the humble reserve grader from Lismore is anything but with more than 42,000 likes for a post gone viral because it captures the angst among rugby's grumbling masses.

Quigley said he was caught completely off-guard by the lunchtime hook-up that has helped "restore a bit of faith in the Wallabies" for Saturday's Test against Italy in Brisbane.

"It's pretty reassuring when the coach of the Wallabies phones a fan to have a good heart-to-heart rugby chat and tells you how much they do care," Quigley said.

"He didn't dodge blame, gave some context and even agreed with some of the points I'd made over a lot of beers as a rambling, broken fan."

The rugby fanatic had boldly requested a 15-minute face-to-face to address the Wallabies when his fingers hit the keyboard in disgust after the Wallabies' lame 24-19 loss to Scotland last Saturday in Sydney.

The darts flew after a teammate's 40th birthday party because Quigley admitted: "I was well through my third six-pack but went to bed feeling good because I'd had my vent."

A 30-minute phone call with Cheika was way more than Quigley expected in the sober light of Monday.

"He did agree the team could have been fitter for the final 10 minutes when the Test was on the line and that players are building belief again in those big 50-50 moments after beatings in the Super Rugby environment."

Quigley wrote in his lengthy post that "the Wallabies' attitude towards the basic skills is unacceptable. A culture of blame-avoidance has been allowed to fester."

He was fierce: "I love you but I'll be blunt. The Wallabies are a disgrace."

He was passionate: "When I was a kid - hell, even now, I would've given my left nut just to pull on a Wallabies jumper.

And he cut to the players' souls: "But when I see you guys run out, I feel like you don't care ... ENOUGH! CLEARLY!"

The self-labelled "pleb" is a passionate rugby man from Lismore who plays reserve grade and coaches with the Southern Cross University Gold Rats as well as referees.

Cheika had Quigley's Facebook rating of the Wallabies stuck up in the players' team room and admitted it was "pretty confronting."

Hi guys, Just wondering if you'd be so kind as to pass this on to Michael Cheika on my behalf. My name is Jack...

Posted by Jack Quigley on Saturday, 17 June 2017

"I gave the gentleman a ring, why not?" Cheika said.

"I think it's important you talk to the fans and he is obviously one who cares."

Cheika's main point of dispute was any accusation that the players didn't care.

"We weren't good enough but I believe we cared, totally," Cheika said.

"How he was feeling after the game wasn't too far away from what some of us were feeling as well.

"(The Facebook post) was pretty confronting. It's on our wall and for those who hadn't seen it it was pretty heavy in some ways.

"It's not the first time I've spoken to fans ... I spoke to a few (in 2013) when I started as Waratahs coach and there were some death threats."

Quigley said he rated Cheika's honesty big time and his sign off most of all.

"His sign off was really good ...'like you I'm a pleb, I just coach the team'," Quigley said.