Wallabies coach Michael Cheika has urged supporters to stick with his team, adamant his belief has not wavered despite suffering their first home series defeat to England.
Since taking over, Cheika has maintained a desire to make the Australian public proud and said he hoped that fans would stick with them because of their ethos, not just results.
“It depends if pride equals winning. If pride equals winning, then no one's proud of us are they?,” he said.
“I don't know what other people think but for me it's really easy to believe in yourselves or other people to believe in you when you're just winning.
"That's life, things go wrong sometimes."
As for his own side, Cheika said this series actually made him more confident in his charges.
“I believe in my lads more now than I did before because I've seen that they're working hard to get it right,” he said.
“If pride is only in perfection then there'll be some people that aren't proud but if pride is in the other things they see going on with the team and want to support fully then people will be proud of us.
“I've still seen a lot of support from people around in the streets in Sydney here getting ready for the third test.”
Cheika dismissed the notion that being so open about his playing style has made his side predictable, rather saying they needed to return to their style.
“I don't see any other teams around that are changing that much. Have England changed what they've done over the Six Nations to here? not really,” he said.
“Everyone has their style and maybe we went away from ours and it's a matter of rebuilding that.
“I think that's what people - I know that's what people in this country want to see, they want to see us play footy.
“Sometimes it doesn't go the right way. So what do you do? Panic and do something different just to have a win? I'm not like that.
“I've got bigger aspirations than that .Sometimes you've got to take a knock on the chin.”
Cheika has long stood by a long-term approach with his side and three years out from a World Cup, there is still plenty to play out.
“There’s no good time,” he said.
“You've gotta to time your run in some things.
“You've got to pick when you want new players to come into the team.
‘I'm not using saying that we're prepared to give up a game here or there for that, no way, but they're the decisions you've got to make and you've got to live with the way it goes after that.”
