MICHAEL CHEIKA already has an eye on leading Lebanon into another World Cup next year.
The 58-year-old Australian has had a long coaching career in rugby union, at one stage taking charge of the Wallabies, and currently has a Premiership title with Leicester Tigers in his sights.
He also coached the Cedars in the 2022 Rugby League World Cup, taking them to the quarter-finals, where they lost 48-4 to eventual winners Australia at Huddersfield.
After a warm-up win over Wales at Sale, Cheika, who has also worked for Sydney Roosters, oversaw group-stages victories against Ireland and Jamaica at Leigh after an opening defeat by New Zealand at Warrington.
That was while also guiding the Argentina union team to a memorable one-point win over England at Twickenham (they lost to Wales at Cardiff and Scotland at Murrayfield).
The 2026 World Cup is being staged by Australia and Papua New Guinea, with the Cedars qualifying automatically after making the last eight last time around.
The same goes for Australia, England, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga, with the other two teams in the scaled-down tournament to be decided through qualifiers later this year.
France host Jamaica at Albi in the northern hemisphere decider on Saturday, October 25, while the date and venue of the southern hemisphere showdown between Cook Islands and South Africa is still to be confirmed.
Cheika, appointed by Leicester in June, has announced he will leave at the end of this season.
And while his next union job is still to be confirmed, the Sydneysider has been lined up by his country of heritage for the World Cup, and is aiming to fix up internationals later this year as well as helping develop Rugby League, including further growing the women’s game, in the country.
While he first took charge of Lebanon in succession to Brad Fittler in 2020, his union coaching bow was in the Italian club game in 1999 after a playing career as a number eight which took in Sydney team Randwick, Castres, Stade Francais (then known as CASG Paris), Livorno and New South Wales Waratahs and brought Australia Under 21 appearances.
He coached Randwick, Leinster, Stade Francais and the Waratahs before a five-year stint in charge of Australia up to 2019, after which came a spell working under Trent Robinson at the Roosters.
Cheika, who has also coached union in Japan, has turned Leicester from a team who finished eighth in the Premiership last season into one in contention to challenge for a first Premiership crown since 2021-22 via the play-offs.
