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Thursday

02:10

Thursday

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Super Rugby Pacific

Report: Former Wallabies coach turned NRL assistant poised for Waratahs return

Henry Lee

Published: 16 August 2026 20:00 CDT
Updated: 16 August 2026 20:01 CDT

Former Wallabies head coach and current Sydney Roosters assistant coach Michael Cheika is set to make a return to the NSW Waratahs.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Cheika will be announced as the club’s new head coach 12 years after clinching the club’s first Super Rugby title.

“According to informed sources speaking on the condition of anonymity, Cheika’s likely two-year deal is currently being finalised. The Waratahs are set to announce their new coach later this week,” the SMH reported.

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“The former Wallabies coach has been in conversations with RA Chief Executive Phil Waugh for the last two weeks, with Cheika still to take charge of Lebanon in the Rugby League World Cup and also keen to see out the NRL season with the Roosters.”

Cheika, who’s currently alongside Trent Robinson at the Roosters, last held a role in the 15-man code with the Leicester Tigers in the Gallagher Premiership.

In 2025, Cheika led the Tigers to the Premiership final, before jetting back to Australia to help the Roosters in the NRL for 2026.

If confirmed, the former Los Pumas head coach will have the services of experienced halves duo Nick Phipps and Bernard Foley, who recently inked deals with the Sydney-based Super Rugby Pacific franchise.

The Waratahs have been without a head coach since the sudden departure of Dan McKellar, who took charge for two years, finishing outside the Super Rugby Pacific playoffs in both seasons.

Comments

21 Comments

Two Cents 27 days ago

It’s rarely a positive move to return to the past in order to progress into the future.

I don't see the value in what the Tahs are doing is anything more than throwing up their hands, declaring they have no ideas and reverting to the last good thing that happened to NSW rugby.

It might work, of course, but even if it does what does that say about the state of management at NSW Rugby HQ? Surely some heads would have to roll.

NSW Rugby is not in the rude health it was in back in 2014 when there was complete alignment across the entire senior level with the majority of players both in and around the Tahs coming from the four most dominant sides in the Shute Shield.

The current Tahs lineup is a real mixed bag with a little bit of experience but a lot of greenery and it's going to be tough for essentially a new coach to walk in and have them running on all cylinders from day dot, as is clearly the expectation.

But if one thing has been made clear from all this it's where the rot in Australian rugby really lies, firmly in NSW.

Tooly 27 days ago

Less Kiss’s job will be Cheika’s next goal .

Good bye Les .

BS , BLUSTER and poor selections are coming back .

KwAussie 28 days ago

hahahaha makes perfect sense. The Waratah franchise is a circus so bring back the clown.

Tooly 28 days ago

Is there money in promoting Cheika ?

Jez Nez 28 days ago

Is the right call but it’s bloody sad that our first decent coach since Cheika more than a decade ago is going to be Cheika again

NH 28 days ago

Is he the first decent coach since his first go round Jez? Or is he the only one that will be given a fair shake? I hope he will be a positive at the tahs, but like eddie and the WBs i think it could be quite hard for him to have the same impact twice. If he doesn’t start winning quickly, and get them at or near the top, i fear the knives will be out very quickly and it will be seen as a failure… I hope for your sake he goes well and he is obviously qualified but I do worry the same media and carry-on that has led to the demise of many a tahs coach will only be louder with cheika back in. Maloney and turinui made a good point that they should hire his successor now as an assistant (they were obv pushing hoiles barrow) which I don’t mind.

Tooly 28 days ago

Good coaches SH players.

Rugby3 28 days ago

Why, when we keep giving coaching jobs to kiwis, so we don’t develop any Australian coaches ?

Cheika will be plotting how to stab Less Kiss in the back already. He’s probably still got the knife.

If he can turn the aging Foley and Phipps in to winners he’ll be ‘New Jesus’.

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