Michael Cheika linked with Top 14 giants
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Now former Wallabies head coach Michael Cheika is being tipped to take over as Montpellier's director of rugby from Kiwi coach Vern Cotter.
Cheika quit after five years as Wallabies head coach after Australia failed to reach the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup after falling in the quarter-finals to England last Saturday.
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French rugby newspaper, Midi Olympique, has claimed that Montpellier has had talks with Cheika's representatives.
Current Montpellier director of Rugby, Vern Cotter, was hired as Montpellier's head coach in 2017, leading them to a 2017-18 grand final defeat to Castres.
After Montpellier finished sixth in 2018-19 he was moved to the director of rugby role with his current contract expiring in June 2020.
Midi Olympique claimed Cheika "could then land in Herault in the director of rugby role substantially equivalent to that occupied today by Vern Cotter..."
The Australian would "become the superior" of Montpellier's new head coach, former France test back Xavier Garbajosa.
Rugby Australia must do all it can to continue promoting home coaches, says departing boss Michael Cheika. #RWC2019https://t.co/U7xTNcat5T
— Ultimate Rugby (@ultimaterugby) October 22, 2019
Signing Cheika would be a coup for Montpellier's billionaire president Mohed Altrad, Midi Olympique suggested, "as the aura of the [Australian] is important on the international scene".
The report said Cheika had "suffered a capital failure" during his coaching stint with Stade Francais from 2010 to 2012, but "his overall track record remains impressive", including a 2015 Rugby Championship with the Wallabies and a 2015 Rugby World Cup Super title, plus a European Champions Cup win with Leinster and a Super Rugby title with the Waratahs.
Born into a Lebanese family in Sydney, Chieka speaks fluent Arabic, French and Italian.
