What Michael Cheika asked Waratahs recruit Angus Crichton after NRL triumph

NSW Waratahs recruits Michael Cheika and Angus Crichton had just helped the Sydney Roosters win the NRL Grand Final when the incoming coach asked the three-time premiership winner: “What position do you want to play”

Cheika hadn’t spoken about the move to union with Crichton before that October, as the former Wallabies coach revealed on Wednesday morning. Crichton played schoolboy First XV rugby at Sydney’s Scots College, before initially pursuing an NRL career with the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

Rugby Australia announced on January 20 that Crichton had inked a deal effective from the 2027 Super Rugby Pacific season. The Tahs would later sign former Wallabies halves Bernard Foley and Nick Phipps, and secure the return of coach Cheika as well.

Cheika served as an assistant coach at the Tricolours and took charge of Lebanon during the 2026 Rugby League World Cup. But the 2014 Super Rugby winner fronted the press at Allianz Stadium, before the Waratahs’ pre-season begins early next week.

Crichton, who was named the State of Origin Player of the Series (Wally Lewis Medal) two years ago, headlines a Waratahs squad that includes 13 capped Wallabies. But Cheika hasn’t outlined any particular expectations or goals for Crichton’s rookie season.

“I’m not a real big expectations man, because they usually only lead to regrets,” Cheika said.

“The fact that we’re all in the team together, the first thing we get aligned on what we want to achieve. For Angus, he’ll have his own personal ideas and goals of what he wants to achieve, and then he’ll be part of the team’s goals as well.

“I’ve had good experiences with bringing league guys over as well to rugby. Angus has been playing league for a long time… I’ve got no doubts in what he’ll bring and how he’ll fit into the team, and what he’ll bring to the team off the field as well. He’s a real competitor. He’s a great energy guy off the field.”

Cheika wasn’t asked to elaborate on what position Crichton could potentially play, but the Tahs listed the 30-year-old as a back in their squad announcement last week. It was reported earlier this year that Crichton would possibly line up at inside centre or the backrow.

16 backs have been named in the Waratahs squad, with regular Wallabies starters Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and Max Jorgensen in the mix. Sid Harvey is coming off a Rookie of the Year season, and Teddy Wilson has just been named in the Wallabies for the first time.

But when you scroll through the list of names in that roster, it’s impossible to ignore the inclusions of Foley and Phipps. Daly Cherry-Evans helped Cheika’s Roosters win the NRL last month at 37, which is how old those two Waratahs recruits are as well.

“Having that experience back in Bernard and Nick and those guys, and let’s be clear, they were signed before I was,” Cheika explained.

“They’d made an intention themselves to say, ‘I want to come back here to the club and to something to be successful with the club.’ They’re not coming back because I gave them a phone call and said, ‘Mate, can you come and help?’ They made that decision themselves.

“Bernard could have easily just said, ‘I’m gonna retire, do some media and take it easy.’ But he’s got ambitions still.

“Then you’ve got those younger players who have got real ambitions from me, yet they haven’t achieved as yet and they’re going for it. That whole mix of everyone pushing all those together and creating competition inside of that will help us benefit from the wisdom, I suppose, in knowledge of the older guys and the energy and the, I suppose, the ambition of those younger guys to get where they want to go.”