Back to union after two years in league
Michael Cheika is going back to rugby union, and he is going home to do it. The NSW Waratahs confirmed this morning that he has been named head coach from 2027, on an initial one-year deal with an option for 2028.
Since leaving Leicester in 2025, Cheika had been working as an assistant with the Sydney Roosters in the NRL. He took the Tigers to the English title final in 2024-25 before walking away from Welford Road. This is his first top union job since.
He is not turning up straight away, either. “Before any of that, I want to give everything I’ve got to my rugby league club, the Sydney Roosters, and help us hit our target this season, to repay the faith they’ve always shown in me,” he said.
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A CV that still carries weight in New South Wales
Cheika already coached the Waratahs in the mid-2010s and took them to the Super Rugby title in 2014. It remains the only one the club has ever won.
The rest of the résumé travels well beyond Sydney. Celtic League in 2008, then the Heineken Cup in 2009 with Leinster. A Challenge Cup final in 2011 with Stade Francais. A Rugby Championship title and a World Cup final in 2015 with the Wallabies. He has coached Argentina at Test level too.
“The NSW Waratahs have always held a special place for me, it’s my home state,” he said. “Being part of the group that lifted the Super Rugby trophy in 2014 is something I’ll never forget.”
The 2027 calendar explains everything
Australia hosts the World Cup in 2027. Cheika said it himself: the move lands ahead of a huge year for the Waratahs and for Australian rugby as a whole.
The job has been vacant since Dan McKellar left in June. B-J Mather, the club’s performance director, talked up a proven leader with a record built across many seasons. One question mark sits over all of it. Cheika has spent two years in a different code, and the squad, the habits and the detail of union all have to be rebuilt from scratch when he walks back in.
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