Wallabies’ kicking coach in firing line

WALLABIES goalkicking coach Damien Hill is in the firing line due to the poor form of Australia’s top goal-kickers in Super Rugby this year.

Coach Michael Cheika says that Hill’s role is being reviewed, and he will make a decision on who will be in charge of the Wallabies’ goalkicking plans for the World Cup within a fortnight, before they enter camp for The Rugby Championship.

“At the moment the union has had Damien Hill, who has been doing the kicking for the Wallaby and ARU program in general, and I will make decision on what’s going to happen with kicking going forward in the next couple of weeks, before the camps start,” Cheika said.

Worrying statistics show that in Super Rugby’s goalkicking percentages, five of the bottom six teams are Australian, with none successfully kicking at least 70 per cent of goals this year.

“We need to improve in that area, regardless,” Cheika said.

Even if we are kicking at 78 per cent, we want to get to 79 per cent or 80 per cent. That’s just practice, like everything.

“In all our kickers, and we have a lot of kicking options, we have got Quade (Cooper), Bernard (Foley), Christian Lealiifano, Matt Giteau, James O’Connor can goal-kick as well. We have a lot of options. We want to make sure we are practising because kicking for goal will be important.”

To be fair to Hill, he has only been working with three Australian franchises – NSW, the Brumbies and Melbourne – once a week.

The two teams with the worst kicking percentage in the comp, Queensland and Western Force, have their own kicking coach.

The South African teams, whose dominate goalkicking percentages, have a kicking coach for each of their five franchises.

Source: Fox sports au