'I've had something to prove to myself' - Cheika

Michael Cheika will be replaced by Geoff Parling as Leicester Tigers head coach next season

When Michael Cheika took the Leicester Tigers job last summer, the endlessly enterprising coach gave himself one year and one shot to prove a point.

Even as the only coach in history to win a major club competition in both hemispheres, who also has an international portfolio packed with pedigree across both rugby codes, the 58-year-old says the lure of the Premiership was impossible to resist.

Cheika has previously said he was packing his family up to move back to Australia from Paris when he made the "very last-minute" decision to take charge of English rugby's most successful club for the 2024-25 season.

He is into the final three weeks of that contract, and when asked to reflect on why he made the move, Cheika replied: "I'm always looking to prove something to myself.

"If you want to be a high achiever, you are never satisfied with what you have done.

"It's my first opportunity to be in the English league and I suppose I do want to prove something to myself."

It was 11 years ago that he won the Super Rugby title with New South Wales Waratahs, a victory of history-making proportions after he guided Leinster to Heineken Cup honours by beating Tigers in the 2009 European final.

No coach before or since has managed to replicate what he has achieved across hemispheres.

In the decade between club coaching jobs at Waratahs and Tigers, Cheika took Australia to the 2015 World Cup final - a run that earned him the World Rugby coach of the year award - then led Argentina to the last four of the global tournament in 2023.

What he achieve with Argentina was done during a jobshare arrangement which saw him take Lebanon to the rugby league World Cup a year earlier.

And now the Australian has a huge chance of making a glorious impression on the Premiership at the end of his flyby campaign at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.

Tigers had finished eighth last season under former boss Dan McKellar and they are now second in the table heading into the final day of the regular season.

"I know that with turnarounds, which is what I came into, they take a certain amount of time. We doing it at an accelerated process," Cheika said.

"We have come in from Monday with a clear idea, and theme that the next part of journey is the last to get to the summit, I suppose."

Leicester host bottom side Newcastle Falcons on Saturday knowing victory will guarantee a home semi-final a week later.

"We understand that this weekend is finals footy - it's as knockout as it comes, as knockout as it will be at any other time," Cheika said.

"I want to play with a finals-like intensity on Saturday, and just win that game like we have all year and let all the cards fall wherever they fall."