Michael Cheika was about to move his family from Paris back to Australia when he was offered the chance to turn Leicester Tigers from also rans into a team that could recapture former glories and is aiming high by targeting the Gallagher Premiership and the Investec Champions Cup for his new squad.
Having agreed a one year deal with options to extend his stay at a club that finished a lowly eighth in the Gallagher Premiership under former head coach Dan McKellar, Cheika is five weeks into his new job and is bullish about his first season in charge. He said: “ We’re in it to win everything. I’m really happy we got into the European Cup as well – into the big one – because it will be important for us to compete as hard as we can on all fronts.”
Cheika, most recently the head coach of Argentina at the 2023 Rugby World Cup, has a long CV, including taking charge of the Wallabies and had been approached by Leicester when they were looking for a new head coach with McKellar eventually chosen. Having coached at Leinster and in France, Cheika admits he wasn’t looking to add a stint in the Premiership to his rugby experience but the chance to turn Leicester around appealed.
He explained: “Sometimes when you play for a club like this you feel you have to live up to the reputation which has been set, when the real objective is to build it even greater, to add onto it, to use the things which can inspire you from that tradition.
“ I believe that even though the club might have that identity based around gritty, aggressive forward play, which suits me down to the ground mind you, they’ve also got a strong history of playing with some outstanding backs at this club for many years, a different type of backline play which maybe we haven’t seen as much of recently.
“ It won’t change a lot about who we are, but to win at the top level you need to be good at everything, have many strings to your bow. That’s what we’re trying to do. Have a real priority, so our fans know exactly who we are, but at the same time have all the strings in the bow that we need to be able compete for the titles on both fronts.”
So how did a return home to Sydney with his family turn into a new job with Leicester and a hotel room in the city while he sorts out both his professional and personal commitments? “It all happened relatively quickly:” he explained.
“ I’ve been living in Paris for the last few years and then pretty much made the decision to go back to Australia. Then all of a sudden maybe, a couple of weeks out from when we were about to leave ( it happened). It was just the right time for me. I’ve had some contact with Leicester before way back over my time in different periods and the timing hasn’t worked out.
“I probably wasn’t aiming to come into the Premiership with what I was thinking about doing moving forward, but when a club like Leicester makes that approach and that opportunity fits you at the right time, it’s almost impossible not to take it. The way it worked out, the nature and speed of it, how it all happened, suited me at that time. I jumped straight into training not long after I got here and I’m happy with that’s going on so far.”
Cheika is the club’s eighth head coach since 2017, a turnover that included losing the core of the coaching team that won the 2021/22 Premiership title as Steve Borthwick was given the opportunity to take over the England role. Cheika has inherited a squad packed with young English talent headed by forwards George Martin and Ollie Chessum, with the later about to complete his return from surgery.
The quality of the squad has impressed the new head coach who is looking forward to helping Martin build on his growing reputation as an international lock forward with the kind of hard edge that Martin Johnson, the former England and Leicester legend, brought to every contest. The 57-year-old said: “George is a pretty handy player who is just coming through and has a way to go before he meets his full potential but he is having a serious impact at international level which is not easy to do because you are playing against the best of the best.
“He is already back in and getting into his rehab and that shows a bit about the mentality of the player and he looks like a player who is well organised, very professional and can balance that out with a bit of old school – tough and hard footy. That is a skill that is very advantageous to have and I will be looking forward to working with him. From having coached against him at international level he is definitely a player to watch.”
Andrea Pinchen, Leicester’s CEO, knows a period of stability is vital for the club and admitted that after one season with McKellar in charge left them with no option. She explained: “ It didn’t work out for either of us. Finishing eighth is not what Leicester is about and not what our season ticket holders pay to see.”
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