Waratahs coach Michael Cheika says his team feels like part of his family

COACH Michael Cheika has revealed that he has never been as close to a group of players as he is to the Waratahs group he now considers “family”.

NSW Waratahs coach Michael Cheika talks to his team during NSW Waratahs training at Bus Loop Oval, Moore Park .Picture Gregg Porteous

HE has coached in Italy, Ireland, and France, but in a rare moment of personal candour, Michael Cheika revealed that he has never been as close to a group of players as he is to the Waratahs group he now considers “family”.

Hardened and demanding, Cheika is nevertheless revered and loved by his NSW players, and the feeling is obviously mutual.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been so close to a team as far as feeling them as part of my family,” Cheika said, as his side prepares for their first home semi-final in eight years against the Brumbies on Saturday night.

“It’s such a close-knit unit, I don’t think I’ve been involved in a team that’s got that.

“And it’s really developed more this year.

“I wouldn’t be the type of coach that pushes it that much, it’s happened by the nature of the characters inside it.

“When it comes down, it’s going to be tough as it will be this weekend, hopefully that comes to help us.

“It’s the people in the team, and the staff. Sometimes that just clicks, you can’t fake it.

“It’s people that want to do things, make sacrifices for each other.

“No matter what happens around the end of the season, I’ll always respect that from this team of players.”

Eighteen months into his tenure in one of the toughest jobs in Australian sport, turning the perennial underachieving Waratahs into a premiership team, Cheika admits that he has become a different coach to that who managed to do a similar job with Leinster, having led them to a maiden Heineken Cup triumph after 14 years of failure in 2009.

Cheika revealed that his close relationship with his players was also part of his personal evolution.

Fullback Israel Folau at Waratahs training.

“I’m hoping it’s softening me up, that wouldn’t be any good would it now?” he laughed.

“Maybe I’m allowing myself to get involved a little bit more, I was a bit more stand-offish in the past.

“You’d be pretty boring if you stayed the same person all the time.

“Those things you do on a day-to-day basis, they’re just going to help the outcome of the game hopefully.

“But you can’t build your relationships on outcomes of games - I’m not going to like them more if we win on the weekend.”

Cheika can see similarities between his hoodoo-ending Leinster team, and this Waratahs side, with no NSW team having won Super Rugby since its inception in 1996.

“Mainly the landmarks, when you see things happening as the team changes you can identify what it actually is, as opposed to back then having no idea,” Cheika said.

“You can see some of the behaviours in the team that you can relate back, you know why it’s happening because you’ve seen it happen before.”

Of his opponents this weekend, Cheika also sees a reflection of coach Stephen Larkham in the Brumbies.

“They’re slowly turning into their coach really,” Cheika said.

“Pick and choose those times very well, when to run, when to kick, and that’s pretty normal, logical.

“Because he was such an influential playmaker, Stephen, they’re very much becoming like him.”

Cheika also hit back after comments he made to the Daily Telegraph about the Brumbies preferring to play his side rather than the Crusaders were perceived as “mind games”.

“I saw it written up as some sort of mind games, it’s quite funny nowadays because the truth is even being interpreted as a mind game,” Cheika said.

“The reality is, if they’re cheering for the opposition, being the Sharks at the time, it means they think they’re an easier chance of beating us than the Crusaders. It’s pretty simple.

“We understand that we’ve been on the receiving end over many years, and warranted, because we haven’t delivered.

“Here’s a chance for us.”

WARATAHS: 15. Israel Folau 14. Alofa Alofa 13. Adam Ashley-Cooper 12. Kurtley Beale 11. Rob Horne 10. Bernard Foley 9. Nick Phipps 8. Wycliff Palu 7. Michael Hooper (captain) 6. Stephen Hoiles 5. Kane Douglas 4. Jacques Potgieter 3. Sekope Kepu 2. Tatafu Polota-Nau 1. Benn Robinson. Reserves: 16. Tolu Latu 17. Paddy Ryan 18. Jeremy Tilse 19. Will Skelton 20. Mitchell Chapman 21. Pat McCutcheon 22. Brendan McKibbin 23. Taqele Naiyaravaro 24. Matt Carraro 25. Cam Crawford (two to be omitted).