Tokyo: Michael Cheika has defended a "nervous" Reece Hodge after Australia was accused of not educating their players enough over foul play protocols.

The Wallabies have until 2pm AEST on Saturday to decide whether they will appeal Hodge's three-week ban for a high tackle on Fiji No.7 Peceli Yato but a fired-up Cheika took aim at the judicial panel's decision to single out Hodge for criticism in their written judgment.

"I think there is a part of it - that I have spoken to the boys about it - there is a bit of us versus everyone else, you know and we know that. So we are not going to let it derail us," Cheika said.

"We’ll just suck it up and get focused on what’s important, and that is the match on Sunday. We wanted no obstacles to derail us and we are not going to let them get to us. We’ll just concentrate on our footy and do the best we can on Sunday for Australia."