A head coach of an international side needs to be a bit crazy, South Africa’s Heyneke Meyer said this week. Only one of the two men preparing their sides for Saturday’s World Cup final would appear to fit that description; Australia’s Michael Cheika who, befitting someone who used to work in the fashion industry, wears his heart on his sleeve.
The expression on the face of New Zealand’s Steve Hansen rarely changes beyond a deeper shade of grimace, a former police officer able to disguise his emotions. “Guys like me show feelings from the outside,” Meyer said. “I am a total nutter but others take the same pressure inwards. Steve may look relaxed but he will be feeling it on the inside.”
Cheika, who won the Heineken Cup in 2009 while in charge of Leinster and five years later took the Super 15 title with the New South Wales Waratahs, has been the most quoted head coach this tournament, not least because he has fronted most of the Wallabies’ media conferences. When an Australian journalist wrote a profile of him earlier this year, a number of sources asked not to be named because Cheika “liked to control the message”. Reflecting on the coach’s time in Dublin, the Ireland fly-half Jonathan Sexton said he had the capacity to terrify players.
Cheika has been in charge of Australia for little more than a year and his desire to be involved in everything compares with Hansen when he succeeded Graham Henry as Wales’s head coach at the start of 2002. The team were in trouble, like the Wallabies 12 months ago, the Grannygate scandal undermining the gains made in Henry’s first 20 months.
One of Hansen’s first tasks was to gather local reporters together in a Cardiff hotel and lay down what he expected. It was mostly a one-way conversation and it was made clear he would not, unlike his predecessor, welcome phone calls on his mobile or at home. Access would be limited to media conferences, although he came to use a couple of journalists as sounding boards. He took an iron grip, as he had to, and players who had been given a long rein found themselves hauled in.
He insisted that when the players were at the training base in the Vale of Glamorgan no one slipped home at night because there were some who lived a distance away and did not have the option. When he was walking around the hotel early one morning, he saw the Lions wing Dafydd James and asked what he was doing. Unsatisfied with the reply that he had gone to get his Walkman, Hansen went to the car park, found James’s car and put his hand on the exhaust, which was warm. James was thrown out of the squad, not for sneaking home but for lying having been caught.
Honesty is one of Cheika’s keywords, and while both he and Hansen are hard personalities who are not prepared to indulge the media for their own ends, they have both spawned teams who play hard but with a smile. It took Hansen longer with Wales than Cheika, not least because of the difference in the quality of players, and his success with the All Blacks in the last four years has been to make an outstanding side even better.
“I have come to know Steve well and he has set the right ethos, one of humility with players aware of what it means to be an All Black,” Meyer said. “It is usually difficult taking over from a winning coach but three defeats in more than 50 Tests is remarkable. He believes in rugby as a way of life and is not there for himself. There is a funny side to him that people do not see; he has a great sense of humour.
“I do not know Michael Cheika anywhere near as well but Australia have toughened up under him without losing their brilliance in the backs. Their forwards have a hard edge now and it was clever of him to carry on coaching the Waratahs while one of his assistants, Stephen Larkham, was with the Brumbies. They had their hands on the players the whole time. It will be a fascinating final.”
Cheika knew he was in a strong bargaining position when he was approached by the Australia Rugby Union last year, having been ignored previously because of his tendency to leave administrators in no doubt about what he thought: he negotiated a greater salary than he had been offered, complete control over selection and the right to consider Wallabies based abroad if they had won 60 caps or more.
“The smiles had gone off faces and I would like to think the enjoyment is back,” he said earlier this year. “Rugby is not robot school: I believe in individuals. You want the quiet guy, the lover, the joker, the fighter in your team, otherwise it is boring.”
It should not be boring as the light fades on Saturday, and while the cameras zooming in on the faces of the two coaches during the match will see one animated and the other deadpan, they will merely be manifesting their craziness in different ways.
Tale of the two coaches
Steve Hansen
Age 56
Playing career Centre for La Rochelle and Canterbury
Head coach career Canterbury, Wales, New Zealand
Previous occupation Police officer
Media relations Prickly but has worked with a public relations consultant to improve his image. Amusing one-liners during World Cup
Trivia Made high chief of a Samoan village, a title bestowed on him after the All Blacks played in Apia in July.
Hansen on Hansen “I was never good enough to play for the All Blacks. I’d give up everything I’ve done in coaching to play one game. And most people would say I’d be lucky.”
Michael Cheika
Age 48
Playing career No8 for Randwick, Castres, Stade Français, Livorno
Head coach career Petrarca Padova, Randwick , Leinster, Stade Français, NSW Waratahs, Australia
Previous occupation Fashion distributor
Media relations Had a run-in with a cameraman in a Super Rugby game earlier this year that left him with a $6,000 fine and a suspension hanging over his head for six months. Generally been affable and polite during World Cup
Trivia Speaks Arabic, French and Italian fluently
Cheika on Cheika “Sometimes you’ve got to show the players you care. I am just honest and I want them to be as well.”
