'When the tree gets shaken, something normally happens': Michael Cheika on R360

As someone who has coached in rugby union and rugby league concurrently, with Argentina and Lebanon, Michael Cheika has never shied away from taking an unconventional approach to the sport, which is why talk of a new R360 league doesn’t faze him. If anything, the Australian, who has led Leicester into the Gallagher Premiership playoffs in his only season in charge of the Tigers, welcomes any initiatives that help to bring more investment into the game and eyeballs on it.

When asked about the franchise-based club competition being driven forward by 2003 World Cup winner Mike Tindall, which aims to contract the top 300 men’s and women’s players, Cheika said fresh thinking and ideas should always be welcome, whilst revealing that he was one of the players who signed up to the Kerry Packer rebel circuit in the mid-90s. Packer’s breakaway league ultimately led to the game going professional and Cheika is interested to see what happens if R360 gets off the ground, as planned, next year.

“The game wouldn’t be where it is now if it wasn’t for someone disrupting it in 1996,” he pointed out.

“I have got no idea, but maybe the game will kick up another level with disruption. Maybe not by them, it could be the current guys who are running it, but if there’s interest in the market, that’s good for the game because it could mean there is more money coming in or wanting to invest in it.

“I don’t think it is something to be scared of, I think it is something to meet head on, like all challenges in business or in the game, you meet them head on and move on.”

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Similar to his coaching career, Cheika had wanderlust as a player, representing Randwick for 10 years with spells in France and Italy in between. His itchy feet also led him to be ‘all in’ with the Packer movement.

“There was no convincing, I was all in. It was amateur or professional. It did make a huge difference; it made the game professional, so I wouldn’t be worried about the disruption factor.

“It wasn’t necessarily for the money, everyone wants to play in something where there is more exposure, more teams, more global, bigger profile. Fans want to be in that as well.

“The current guys can do that as well. I have seen it myself, Super Rugby never existed before; there were a few provincial matches here and there, and before you know it, there’s a competition.

“We’ve always had a bit of competition as far as the Prem is concerned but that changed when it became professional, finals, and all of those types of things that we’d never had before.

” I think it is a huge positive in many other industries, it’s about how you deal with it. It’s not going to hurt anyone. You take it on the chin.”