Former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika is out of the running for the vacant NSW Waratahs head coach position after replacing Dan McKellar at Leicester Tigers.
Cheika steps into the role having last coached Argentina to a World Cup semifinal. Cheika was keen to go into NRL coaching with the Parramatta Eels but missed out.
“One minute I was looking at going to rugby league back in Australia, which is something I have always said I wanted to do, but after that didn’t work out and you get an opportunity like this, I feel very fortunate,” Cheika told the Tigers website.
It’s understood he was never a realistic contender for a return to the Tahs, where he won the Super Rugby title in 2014. Dave Dennis, his 2014 captain who is in a development role at the Tahs is the only person from the club who has spoken to the former coach since Darren Coleman was let go.
McKellar and former Wallabies assistant Scott Wisemantel are thought to be among the candidates to replace Coleman.
The Roar reported on Wednesday that the Waratahs are set to name Fiji World Cup coach Simon Rawalui as their high performance director.
“I wasn’t looking at the Premiership and didn’t have the desire to coach in it until Leicester Tigers came to me; the opportunity to coach at Tigers and lead this group of players is what turned my head,” Cheika told the club’s website.
“It has all happened relatively quickly and so to make that decision, it has to be based on it being a place that I would like to be a part of and a group that I want the chance to lead.
“It is somewhere that I want to be.
“Everybody can see that it is a top-quality roster the club has.
“I am not going to lie and say I know every single one of them down to their bones but that’s what I will do over the next few months, to learn how to get the best out of them.
“The roster is only paper. It’s about how the team gels, how to put these really good players and characters together and get them playing in a way that they love it and a way they love going out there, together, and representing Leicester Tigers.”
McKellar left earlier this week after just one season in charge. It was confirmed earlier that his Australian scrum coach Dan Palmer – who assisted Eddie Jones at the World Cup – is also leaving the Tigers.
Cheika will reunited with veteran Argentina skipper Julian Montoya, whom he consulted before the move.
“This has all happened very quickly and he’s obviously away, preparing for Test rugby with Argentina, so I wasn’t going to get in his face or distract him. But, I did speak to him, yes, about how he thinks I would fit.
“I don’t want his appraisal on his teammates, I just wanted him to tell me if he believed I would be right for this job, right for the club, fit in the identity at Tigers and the lifestyle in Leicester to put the best kind of rugby out there for this club.
“Because look, at the end of the day it isn’t about me just going to Leicester. I can go to Leicester and Leicester Tigers any time, for a visit. This, me coming to Tigers, is about being successful and for that to happen, you have got to have a good fit.”
