The 'really nice message' Michael Cheika sent to Kevin Sinfield

Kevin Sinfield can’t wait to bump into rival coach Micheal Cheika on Saturday night in Marseille to thank him for a message he sent to him out of the blue earlier this year.

The England assistant coach stopped short of the finish at the inaugural Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon in May to carry his friend over the finish line – and in the aftermath, he received a message from the Argentina head coach that Sinfield now wants to follow up on four months later.

Cheika isn’t the only Argentine connection that Sinfield will be keen on following up after this weekend’s heavyweight Pool D fixture at Stade Velodrome.

“I know a couple of the Argentina boys, I have worked closely with Julian Montoya so I have a lot of respect for him. I loved working with him.

“I know a little bit about them [Argentina] from the time speaking with Julian and Matias (Moroni) when I was a coach at Leicester. I also know their defence coach, I used to play against him – David Kidwell was a league player.

“And I will also say this, I’ll share this with you – I got a really nice message off Michael Cheika after Rob Burrow’s Leeds Marathon, so I am really looking forward to seeing him on Saturday night and thanking him because he is a good guy.”

Back to Montoya, the Argentina skipper whose enterprise as Leicester hooker helped to drive the Tigers to 2022 Gallagher Premiership glory when Sinfield was the club’s defence coach working under current England boss Steve Borthwick.

What was it that Sinfield loved so much about working with the Pumas leader?

“His toughness, his emotion, his passion, he is a wonderful leader, just felt during my time there I had a really good connection with him. At any point you asked him to do a particular job he went and did it and I can’t speak highly enough of him.”