Michael Cheika used his father’s fearless approach to life as his inspiration when he set about transforming the Wallabies from a demoralised side in 2014 to World Cup finalists the next year.

THIS morning 30 young Irishmen will wake up in Bordeaux. Like so many millions of Irish people before them they will wake in a foreign place, their hearts full of hope, their ambitions fervently shared by everyone they left behind at home.