Meet Wallabies forwards coach Simon Raiwalui, the enforcer who put Michael Cheika on his backside
WHEN new Wallabies forwards coach Simon Raiwalui reminded Michael Cheika what happened when the pair met on the field in a Manly-Randwick clash in the mid-1990s, the boss knew he had his man.
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WITH each conversation he had with Simon Raiwalui, Wallabies coach Michael Cheika was more convinced he’d found his new forwards coach.
But when Raiwalui reminded Cheika what happened when the pair met on the field in a Manly-Randwick clash in the mid-1990s, the deal was sealed.
The short version? Raiwalui decked his new boss.
“We were playing at Manly Oval and Cheika was on the wrong side of the breakdown, which was pretty common for Cheika back in the day,” recalls former Manly hooker Damien Cummins.
“Simon came in with an arm or something and knocked Cheika out flat. Simon was pretty abrasive, an enforcer on the field. A no-bullshit type of bloke.”
Raiwalui’s encounter with Cheika would probably mean a lengthy holiday in today’s safety-conscious footy but the incident still lives in folklore down Manly way, where the big Fijian lock and former Aussie schoolboy was a club favourite during his years there between 1994 and 1997.
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Raiwalui lived in Rockdale but would stay on Cummins’ couch on Friday nights before games.
The big lock departed Australia to play in England and France - and he went on to play 39 Tests for Fiji too - and he moved in coaching in France in 2012 after hanging up the boots.
Raiwalui was put on Cheika’s list to replace Mario Ledesma at the end of last year through his good friend and former Puma Gonzalo Quesada, who Raiwalui has worked under at Racing Metro and now Biarritz.
“I know he was probably not a name many people expected to come forward in this choice,” Cheika said.
“I have taken my time in going through in what turned out to be a pretty good list of candidates. In every discussion I had with him he put himself forward as the right guy for us.”
And that bell-ringing encounter at Manly Oval one late Saturday afternoon?
“I don’t want to say too much but he told me a couple of stories about when we used to play together; him, me, my brother, a few other guys,” Cheika said.
“I didn’t really remember but then I thought about it, and then I thought, oh yeah, okay. Now I am remember who you are.
“He is a pretty imposing character. He is a big unit. I remember him on the field.
“Back in the day, it was always physical. No-one was going to the sin-bin, that’s for sure. He obviously has a good reputation down Manly way.”
Cheika said Raiwalui’s experience in playing and coaching in Europe would help Australian forwards on a number of fronts, including tight play, scrummaging from a back-five perspective as well as the current “front-row-centric” view, and the adoption of a new mindset.
“Just the all-round attitude part of our forward pack ... Simon has the type of character our guys are going to respond to,” Cheika said.
“I just feel it is a really good partnership right now.”
Introducing a coach with Pacific Islander heritage will also be valuable to a Wallabies squad - and Australian rugby landscape - increasingly populated with players of Fijian, Tongan and Samoan heritage.
Raiwalui will begin with the Wallabies at the completion of Biarritz’s current season. French finals begin in May.