Michael Cheika interview: 'I've had no contact from anyone in Rugby Australia'
Roosters assistant coach Michael Cheika. Pic: Matt King/Getty Images
Michael Cheika never thought Johnny Sexton would go down the path of coaching, but the man who took Leinster to the top of the crown says he’s happy to have been proven wrong.
With the Irish team spending the past few weeks down under, Sexton caught up with old coach while he was in Sydney over a meal.
It led to Sexton joining Cheika at his latest club, NRL powerhouse the Sydney Roosters, for a training session ahead of Ireland’s 36-20 win over Japan last week.
“He was good. He loved it. He got in there, watched it, came in and he's an inquisitive lad,” Cheika said of his old playmaker. “I didn't even imagine him coaching, to be honest, but he's got into it and he seems like he's fit for it exactly. And he enjoyed it.”
So what did he do? “He enjoyed coming in and he watched it, the wrestling work that we did, came out for a field session, he did a bit of stuff with the kickers at the back end of the session. They sat around with him and asked him some questions. I think he really enjoyed it, you know, and he's an absolute pleasure to coach,” Cheika said.
“I think you're going to find that he's a guy who's going to influence a lot of players and the quality of their play in Ireland because he thinks the game well, he's got good communication skills and he's been there, he's been in the middle of it before.
"When the biggest prizes are up for grabs, he's been there calling the shots so he knows what's going on.”
A few days earlier, Cheika was in the stands for Ireland’s 33-31 win over the Wallabies.
The two-point win wasn’t too dissimilar to the final result last time Ireland played in Sydney eight years earlier. The big difference was that rather than being in the coach’s box, he was in the stands and watching his old coaching rival Joe Schmidt in charge of the Wallabies instead.
Nor did he get the ticket to the Test from Sexton.
“I have my other sources, I have my other sources. I still have some contacts, you know, that love me,” Cheika quipped, having had a curious relationship with Rugby Australia since ending ties with the Wallabies following the 2019 World Cup.
Despite returning to his other love, rugby league, most rugby fans in Australia still shake their heads at the fact that Cheika isn’t currently involved in rugby in the region despite the falling stocks of the Wallabies in recent years and indeed the country’s Super Rugby sides.
Nor has the premature departure of Dan McKellar from the Waratahs, who are owned by Rugby Australia, seen the national body pick up the phone and try and lure Cheika back.
“I’ve had no contact from anyone,” he said. But Cheika isn’t losing sleep over that matter despite only signing a one-year deal to join Trent Robinson at the Roosters.
Asked what he might be doing during next year’s World Cup, Cheika said he had “no idea”.
“Sometimes I love being in that zone,” the 59-year-old added. “You don’t know what’s going to happen next and you just let it play out.
“Again, I'm in charge of doing the best I can right now. If I do that, everything else is going to work out from there. No matter how I end up watching it.”
Nor is he the only highly respected rugby coach not involved in the XV-person game at the moment, with decorated assistant coach Scott Wisemantel also an assistant in the NRL.
Given where Australian rugby currently is, it’s an odd look.
“There's nothing I can do about that, mate,” he said. “I certainly don't feel like there's nothing owed or I should get something. This is the nature of the game.
“For us guys who are doing that, it's just a different experience that we're trying to do our best in. I don't know why that's happened. It is just how it is. I don't think there's a deeper theme there, you know what I mean? I don't think someone's evilly scheming to try to keep you out of a game, it’s just the way it’s turned out.”
Although Rugby Australia has come under fire for not speeding up the transition between Schmidt and Les Kiss, the former Irish assistant who will take the Wallabies coaching reins following this week’s Test against Italy, Cheika said there was still time for the men in gold to turn it around on the field in time for next year’s World Cup.
“There definitely is [time],” he said. “Put it this way, it’s as good a talent base, I think, that we've had for a long time.”
What makes him say that? “I just think from what I've seen, there's a good talent base there,” he said. “Given the environment, Les is coming in now, he'll do his thing. But there is time, I have no doubt about it.” However, Cheika added that changing the mindset in Australian rugby was crucial for getting back in the winner’s circle.
“I think that self-confidence and self-belief is really important,” he said. “When you feel that, the game becomes different. You might be doing exactly the same things, but the game becomes different.
“Sometimes to learn what that looks like you have to do things a little different to learn what that looks like if you haven't had that experience before. A lot of people talk about, what does it look like, winning looks like? Sometimes if you haven't done it, you're not sure.
“So it needs that direction and drive so those lads can be taken to a place where, ‘OK, this is what is required.’ Even that may not be enough because there's other good teams there, you know? But this is what we can do from our end. I really do think it’s about that.”
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