Cheika juggles rugby jobs with aplomb
Adrian Warren
February 10, 2015, 3:16 pm
He hasn't got his jugglers certificate yet, but Waratahs and Wallabies coach Michael Cheika is confident he's keeping his eyes on both jobs, heading into the new Super Rugby season starting this weekend.
Appointed Wallabies mentor late last year, Cheika is embarking on his third season as the Waratahs coach, having steered them to a maiden Super title in 2014.
While the Waratahs are consuming most of his attention at present, Cheika is still spending some time on Wallabies issues and even managed to sneak a peek at last weekend's opening round of the Six Nations tournament in the northern hemisphere.
"I certainly did, I'm keeping my eye on everything," Cheika said on Tuesday, five days before the Waratahs' season opener at home to Western Force.
"Obviously there's lots of things going on around how I'm managing that time between the two, but I'm finding that I've got a good handle on it right now.
"There's things that are happening on both fronts and I think it's very important to me that the players here understand those machinations and where the focus is.
"But I don't think the lads have seen any drop in intensity at all, or focus around what we're doing here."
Cheika cited a chance to potentially talk in person to Force coach Michael Foley this week about joining his Wallabies coaching team, as an example of being able to juggle both jobs.
"It's probably a good really example of being able to divide the two totally in half, where I'm able to have that discussion while at the same time focus 100 per cent on the (Waratahs) team," Cheika said.
He conceded other Australian franchises would have a better idea of how the Waratahs operate after their players worked under him on last year's tour of Europe.
"I think it gives them an insight into how we play for sure," Cheika said.
"But that's the way it is, It's about us doing that well, maybe having the odd variation here or there."
Cheika's appointment as Wallabies coach has potentially added even more spice to the Waratahs' local derbies and made their job of winning successive titles even tougher.
"We've got the Australian coach, so every player is going to want to play well in front of him," Wallabies and Waratahs winger Rob Horne said.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sp...s-with-aplomb/
I personally think a Wallabies coaching panel of Chieka, Bernie Larkham and Foles would be ideal for this RWC season and Chieka to continue on with some other assistants after RWC.
