Michael Cheika explains reason he felt compelled to join Leicester

Former Argentina coach Michael Cheika has revealed the reason why he opted to fill the sudden vacancy at Leicester rather than follow through with the plan to head home to Australia with his family.

The Wallabies’ 2015 Rugby World Cup final coach was based in Paris while in charge of Los Pumas, whom he guided for a fourth-place finish at France 2023. After stepping aside and being succeeded by his assistant Felipe Contepomi, Cheika was all set to head off down under but an unexpected call from England changed that. 

It was June 22 when McKellar and Leicester parted following an eighth-place Gallagher Premiership campaign and it was just a week later when Cheika was named as the replacement for a coach who has since been unveiled as the new Waratahs boss in Sydney. 

Five and a half weeks on from his decision to take over at Welford Road, Cheika has now given his first interview as Leicester boss, telling Tigers TV that the club’s history compelled him to take on the job. “If I’m being totally honest I wasn’t even thinking about that,” he admitted, explaining that a switch to club rugby for the first time since he led the Waratahs to a 2014 Super Rugby title wasn’t in his plans. 

“I was actually planning on going back to Australia. My family has gone back there because we were so far down the road of going back to Australia after my time with Argentina when I was living over here in Europe. 

“I genuinely think that the club, Leicester, has held interest and intrigue for me. I have been an opponent. I have gone to clubs that have since established reputations but never one that has got a reputation like this existing and it genuinely piqued my interest. 

“I wanted to see inside and see how I could add the next layer onto what is already a great club and try my best to make it better and challenge myself in that way. A lot of players that are here also think like that. They want to have that Leicester experience as well. 

“I’m feeling very well. Initially when this whole opportunity came about it was a lot of quick exchanges and a lot of quick decisions had to be made. I would be lying if I didn’t say a little bit of anxiety as well, it’s something I didn’t expect. But now that I am here, I’m starting to get the feel of it. 

“Getting into new kit is not always easy and I am feeling more and more at home with every day that I am here being around the people, being around the different places. That alignment of me with the club is really important as I then want to align all the players with the club and what the players is about as well. I am really happy to be here and I am genuinely, genuinely looking forward to getting involved with the season ahead.”

Leicester last won the Premiership title in 2022 with Steve Borthwick in charge and their 2024/25 campaign with Cheika at the helm will start away to Exeter on September 21. In his in-house club interview, the Australian outlined the baseline of what he expects from his squad.

“Looking at it more from an emotional point of view, it’s about total commitment, very clear alignment to the way we want to play the game and understanding what are the important things that this Leicester team, this Tigers team, will bring to this season because. like I said, we want to build on the reputation that is there, on the identity of the team and have some things that this team brings on their own that Leicester fans and others will go, ‘I like that, I want to support that team’. 

“You have got to be great at everything when you want to aim high and by starting off understanding we want to be very physically committed, mentally and emotionally committed to everything we do and so there is no room for error as far as effort is concerned and then we will grow our game as the season goes on. 

“If we start off with that basis and we start growing our game, building on a framework we are putting in place now and being able to so evolve that during the season, so when we come to game one we want to be ready and have that as our base level, full 100 per cent commitment, emotional and physically ready to go, because even if we are not perfect on the footy front that will get us through.”