Cheika re-signs with Wallabies to plot 2019 World Cup campaign

Dream. Hope. Believe. This school motto could easily be the theme for the Wallabies’ 2019 World Cup campaign.

Wallabies Coach Michael Cheika speaks to students during a Game on clinic at Bronte Public school. Michael Cheika has had his coaching contract extended. Picture: John Appleyard

Dream. Hope. Believe.

This is the motto of Bronte Public School in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, but it could just as easily be the theme for the Wallabies’ 2019 World Cup campaign.

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika, whose contract has been extended two years to 2019, will dream of winning the World Cup; the ARU will be hoping Australia hold the William Webb Ellis Cup for a record-equalling third time; and the players will need to believe in themselves if they are to have any chance of achieving it.

Cheika had just one year to prepare the Wallabies for last year’s World Cup in England and took them from sixth in the world to the World Cup final, where they lost to the All Blacks.

Now Cheika has four years to get the players ready for the next World Cup in Japan.

“We will be looking at some of the younger players. Guys who we feel will be candidates for the squad further down the road and investing in them a little bit more,” Cheika said at the announcement of his contract extension yesterday at Bronte Public in Sydney’s east. “As well as layering our coaching plan a bit more. We sort of just cobbled everyone together last year and got going. We can have a bit more input now.

“We have built really good relationships with the state coaches and that is only going to help us. The more we can do that and the more collaboration we can have in making players better, then the better we are going to be in the longer term.”

One of Cheika’s immediate tasks will be to find a replacement for injured playmaker Kurtley Beale, who had been earmarked to play inside centre in the three-Test series against England next month.

Cheika has always run two playmakers at five-eighth and inside centre, but he is considering running a big midfield with a second playmaker at fullback.

“There’s a few options. Karmichael (Hunt) has been playing well at fullback,” Cheika said. “He can play in the playmaker role. Christian (Lealiifano) has played fullback before, but he could play up front as well.

“There’s a few different options that we’ve got that we can play around with. No matter how we spin it, there is going to be a bunch of new combinations whether it’s Samu (Kerevi) and Tevita (Kuridrani) or Christian and Tevita.”

Cheika was confident Beale, who has signed a multi-million dollar deal with English club Wasps, would be available to the Wallabies when he recovers from his knee injury in four to six months.

“I had a word to him the other day. He was still in hospital. Still in a lot of pain and a lot of disappointment,” Cheika said.

“He is a very resilient character and he has become more resilient over the last couple of years. He’ll be ready for this challenge (Wasps) no doubt. In the bigger scheme of things it’s a very short period of time and he’ll be back better than ever for sure.”

Beale can continue to play for the Wallabies because of the 60-Test rule, but how will the ARU prevent players who have not reached the threshold from ­accepting rich offers from European clubs?

“You’ve got to be reading the signs as they come,” Cheika said. “Maybe perhaps in the past we have signed players and just hoped they would make it and if they did we’d re-sign them.

“This time (we must) identify our younger players properly, sign them for longer, invest more in them and make sure they make it.”

Cheika indicated he would be interested in the code-hopping Jarryd Hayne if he did not pledge his allegiance to Fiji.

“I’d be lying if I said no and tried to play it cool,” Cheika said. “Of course he would go well playing Super Rugby. You’ve seen his form in rugby league.

“I’ve only met Jarryd a couple of times. He obviously knows what the game is about. He is connected with the sevens as well. He is a smart guy. He is an achiever.

“He will succeed in whatever he decides. That choice is totally up to him.”

Cheika also expects Melbourne Storm winger Marika Koroibete to succeed in rugby after signing with the Melbourne Rebels for two years.

“Definitely. He would be a high-quality player,” Cheika said. “Anyone who has been through Melbourne Storm is quality because they’ve got quality coaching and a quality program.

“I’ll be interested to see how he goes when he gets here.”