‘Stupid question’: Australian rugby stars unleash on journalists during a fiery press conference ahead of the Wallabies’ World Cup quarter final showdown with England
- Australian Wallabies clashed with English journalists in fiery press conference
- Questions about coach tested patience of Lukhan Salakaia-Loto and Tolu Latu
- Pressure mounts ahead of Wallabies’ must-win World Cup clash against England
Australian Wallabies stars have clashed with journalists in a fiery press conference ahead of their do-or-die Rugby World Cup quarter final in Japan.
Forwards Lukhan Salakaia-Loto and Tolu Latu snapped at English reporters over their line of questioning about Wallabies coach Michael Cheika and whether they can cause an upset against England on Saturday.
The press conference began on civil terms before the relations quickly deteriorated when Latu laughed off one question as a ‘complete joke’.
‘Is it awkward when you get asked about your coach? You’re all giggling as if you didn’t want to answer, or you thought it was a stupid question – not quite sure which one?, one reporter asked.
Tolu Latu (pictured on Monday) described one question about his coach as a ‘complete joke’
The hooker fired back: ‘Stupid question. To ask it, I don’t know, it’s different for you guys and different for us. For us, it comes across as a stupid question so that’s why we’re all laughing.
‘Obviously, you’re asking us a question that we think is a complete joke so, if you’re going to ask us questions like that, we’ll take it as a joke and throw it back at you.’
Earlier, Salakaia-Loto also snapped when asked if Australia can beat England.
‘Because we can, why not?’ he said.
‘We all believe it, we’re not just going to sit here and go, ‘Oh, don’t think we believe it,’ of course we can. We all believe that we can do whatever we want to do, if we put our mind to it.’
The English journalists also tested the patience of Wallabies flanker Lukhan Salakaia-Loto
Salakaia-Loto put the same question to the reporter, who replied ‘not sure’.
‘Really? That’s your problem then. We believe we can beat them,’ Salakaia-Loto fired back.
He also defended Cheika’s outspoken approach early in the tournament when he railed against a number of issues, mostly around high-tackle interpretation.
When asked for an insight of Cheika and whether he was a ‘caring sort of guy’, Salakaia-Loto sarcastically replied: ‘Nah, he’s mean, he’s a bully, bullies everyone. (No) He’s good, man, good fella.’
Latu added: ‘To us, he’s our head coach, of course he cares, he cares about each and every one of us. Simple as that.’
The Australian Wallabies take on England in a die or die Rugby World Cup quarter final
The press conference ended in stony silence shortly afterwards.
The Wallabies go into the match as underdogs, having not beaten England in their last six outings since 2016.
At the last Rugby World Cup four years, ago, the Wallabies caused a huge upset against England with a 33-13 win in the group pool stages to eliminate the host nation.