All Blacks coach Steve Hansen also passed comment on the clown portrayal.
"I've been dressed up as a clown myself," he said. "You don't want to take it to heart."
Relations between the two camps have been frosty, with Hansen and Cheika often trading barbs. The All Blacks also found a listening device in a chair of their team hotel in the leadup to August's Sydney test.
Weekend Herald editor Miriyana Alexander said the Rod Emmerson illustration was a beauty.
"It was all in good fun. The Aussies have a proud record of poking the borax at us, so we thought it was time they got a taste of their own medicine," she said.
