Rugby league and rugby union often sit at polar ends of the Australian sporting spectrum, despite being similar in so many ways. It is a big-brother, little-brother relationship, of sorts, with the NRL dominating domestically but the 15-player game leaving rugby league for dust internationally.
So it is almost unfathomable that a coach could be involved in both codes on the same weekend, that is unless your name is Michael Cheika and, seemingly, a good night’s sleep is not a priority.
Cheika’s decision to coach both Lebanon at the Rugby League World Cup and Argentina’s Test rugby is old news. But after the Cedars advanced through to the quarterfinals to meet the defending champion Kangaroos, Cheika embraced the crescendo of his coaching double-act over the weekend.
From Huddersfield to Twickenham, and even a late-night Stan Sport interview in between, Cheika finished a three-day cross-code coaching onslaught with a 1-1 record.
Lebanon’s Cedars were, as expected, trounced by the Kangaroos. But in another milestone for the roller-coaster Cheika resume, he flipped that script as Argentina upset England on Sunday at Twickenham for the first time since 2006 – giving the Australian a first Test victory over friend and former Randwick teammate Eddie Jones.
“To be honest I’ve loved it. I love being here with these fellas, they’re good to be around, they make you want to get up in the morning and do your absolute best to prepare them,” Cheika said after the Pumas’ 30-29 victory in London.
“And the experience with Lebanon, obviously it’s my heritage, my family’s heritage, at the World Cup of Rugby League, it was probably one of my best, sporting wise. Just that connection back to your heritage and coaching guys from totally different levels of footy, [including] amateurs, it gave me so much energy.
“I felt like the week was pretty seamless really, there wasn’t too many hiccups. And I’ve gotten lucky, I’ve got great people with me here with Felipe [Contepomi], Juan [Fernandez Lobbe] and David [Kidwell] … all of the team here. And also with the Cedars and Matt King and Robbie Farah and those guys, I felt like it was really comfortable for me to be able to enjoy the week, not just do the week.”
As coach of the Pumas, Cheika had already overseen a home series win over Scotland, a first ever victory over the All Blacks in New Zealand, and now a drought-breaking triumph at the home of English Rugby.
While he had never faced a loaded coaching weekend like the one he undertook on the weekend, Cheika did have the previous experience of holding two different roles concurrently.
In 2014, after the sudden departure of Ewen McKenzie, Cheika became coach of the Wallabies with a year to run on his Waratahs contract. Rather than stepping down from his role with NSW after a drought-breaking Super Rugby triumph, Cheika juggled both jobs and later led Australia all the way to the 2015 World Cup final.
After departing the Wallabies following their quarter-final exit four years later, Cheika had also combined consulting roles with Argentina, the NRL’s Sydney Roosters and Japanese Top League outfit NEC Green Rockets.
Clearly he is a man who doesn’t like to sit still, whose exploits extend beyond sport and into fashion, off all industries, in a paradox that might be a bigger juxtaposition than rugby and rugby league.
But given what he has achieved and the unequivocal praise with which he has been showered by NRL players and Lebanon stars Mitchell Moses and Adam Doueihi, it may not be the last time Cheika is seen in the coaching box of a rugby league team.
“He was unbelievable,” Moses said after Lebanon’s 48-4 defeat in Huddersfield. “The way he can get you up for a game, I’ve never seen it before to be honest.
“You hear about all the stories about how he gets teams up for games and I witnessed it first-hand and loved working under him.
“I think he has got a big future in the NRL if he wants a go at it. I think he could definitely coach a team one day if he sticks at it and if he wants to I guess. I definitely got a lot out of that and I think if you speak to anyone in the camp they will definitely agree with me.”
Speaking on Fox Sports’ Rugby League World Cup Live, NRL Premiership winners Greg Alexander and Cory Parker both also backed Cheika to one day take charge of an NRL club, citing only the need for a couple of key assistants for the former Wallabies boss to be a success in a competition of which he is an unashamed fan.
Will Cheika’s exploits herald a new era of coaches jumping between rugby and rugby league, perhaps in a capacity where they do not have to combine the two at the same time?
That seems unlikely, even though coaches from rugby league have for many years found work as defensive consultants right across the rugby world; Cheika’s introduction of former Kiwis captain David Kidwell into the Argentina coaching team the latest example.
But Cheika has never followed the accepted script. He is a man prepared to challenge the conventional methods, the accepted professional limitations, and a coach who has long thought outside the box.
A quick Google search informs a long list of Cheika run-ins, from opposition and assistant coaches, to referees and administrators, and even players themselves; no one, especially the media, has been immune to both barrels from the Australian.
But that is also what makes him such an engaging character, a man who will give up his own time to talk openly on podcasts or, just as he did at the weekend, Zoom in to Stan Sport late at night to offer his two cents on the Wallabies and to detail his recent workflow and experiences of coaching two teams at the same time.
A challenge that reached its crescendo this weekend, one that he will cherish forever even if he is not quite ready to start reflecting just yet.
There are, of course, two further Tests in the United Kingdom to conquer over the next fortnight.
“I would have liked a nicer first half up in Huddersfield, it could have been a perfect weekend then,” Cheika said of the Cedars’ 48-4 loss to the Kangaroos. “But so it is, if we’re going to get beaten we might as well get beaten by Australia.
“I really enjoyed it and I always love being with these guys [Argentina]. I won’t be relaxing after this; I’ll be getting ready for the next game. Maybe when it’s all finished after the Scotland game at the end of the tour I can kick back a little and remember what my wife looks like and my kids.”