Omar Hassanein Interview: Learning from the ‘Gladiator’ Cheika

When Irish rugby reviews the World Cup, it must ensure players are asked about how the game is run and coached from the grassroots up - and not just what the hotel food or kicking coach was like the past month. From fighting alongside Randwick colleague Michael Cheika to learning Japanese in Tokyo to lining out with Monkstown, IRUPA chief Omar Hassanein has learned players need to be integral stakeholders in the game.

He was supposed to have conflicting feelings about tomorrow’s World Cup semi-final. Omar Hassanein isn’t just an Aussie, he’s a Randwick boy, which means Michael Cheika’s one of his boys too.

Just the week before last, the pair of them had breakfast together in a London hotel, reminiscing and chuckling about how Cheika, as first a grizzly vet and then as a coach, opened the eyes of the fledgling flanker to some of the darker as well as more technical arts of how to survive and thrive in this game.