Cheika: new deal is my last

EDDIE O’SULLIVAN may well feel he has more to offer Ireland after eight years with the international set-up but Michael Cheika clearly believes coaches have a much shorter shelf-life with any one team.

The Australian will have been with the Irish province for five years by the time his new two-year deal comes to an end in 2010 and he was adamant yesterday that is “definitely going to be the extent of my tenure”.

“I’m very happy to stay on,” he explained. “It’s always been in my mind as to when too long is too long. You have to be aware of timing in everything, if I can still add to the team.

“The timing is right. I still think I can contribute a lot. There is work to be built on. The work we have done so far has been really good. I would like to try and really get the fruits out of that work.”

While admitting that success in the Heineken Cup and Magners League will be the chief barometers of success, Cheika was at pains to point out that he was looking to build a legacy for the club beyond his own involvement.

“I’m a pretty straight talker. I always want to win, whether it is the league or the cup. If we want to be really good coaches and managers we have to try and win every week while trying to develop structures, do things people might not see all the time.

“I’m not looking for excuses for not winning. At the same time, we have made a lot of changes within the group, with the facilities and everything else. There is still the feeling among coaches and players that there are things we can achieve together.”

With David Knox returning to Australia at the end of the season and Alan Gaffney arriving in his stead next August, it certainly won’t be a case of “as you were” next season.

Gaffney has signed a two-year deal to return to the province as backs coach while Kurt McQuilkan, a former Leinster captain, has also put pen to paper on a new 24-month deal.

Cheika also revealed that there was still scope for another coaching appointment with the new man’s brief likely to be centred on the forwards and/or scrummaging department.

The capture of Gaffney remains the headline grabber, however.

“It wasn’t the easiest,” Cheika admitted. “The situation with Saracens was something we had to work around and manipulate. He wanted to come back here. He will admit himself that, from the last time he was here, he has improved as a coach unbelievably.

“The experience he had as head coach at Munster, his international experience with Australia and now at Saracens. He has all that knowledge he can bring, not just to the backs, but to the whole team.”

For Cheika and Gaffney, their new working relationship sees them come full circle. Gaffney was Cheika’s first coach with Randwick club in Sydney in the early 1990s but the younger man doesn’t believe it will be an awkward situation for either to deal with.

“Some people think it must be weird that he has is coming here having been my coach in the past but the idea is to assemble the best possible guys to be able to keep playing the way we want to play.”

Cheika described Gaffney as one of the few men who could pick up where the departing Knox left off. Knox leaves his imprint on Leinster’s backs and their overall style of play.

“He’s leaving because he wants to go back home,” said Cheika, “and, with the way the Super 14 teams have been playing, they will be crazy if they don’t get a hold of him because they need to improve their attacking play. He can do it for sure.”