Michael Cheika reveals why he believes Rassie Erasmus is the best coach in the world
Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus and Leicester Tigers boss Michael Cheika.
Leicester Tigers head coach Michael Cheika has sung the praises of Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus by declaring that he is the best rugby union coach in the world at the moment.
Cheika is himself one of the most decorated coaches in the game having won the Champions Cup with Leinster and a Super Rugby title with the Waratahs.
Apart from those successes he also had successful stints with the Wallabies, who he led to a Rugby World Cup final in England in 2015, and Argentina who reached the semi-finals at last year’s global showpiece in France under his guidance.
The 57-year-old also has experience in rugby league after coaching Lebanon at the 2021 Rugby League World Cup in England where they reached the quarter-finals.
Speaking on the For the Love of Rugby podcast, Leicester and former England and British & Irish Lions scrum-half Ben Youngs asked Cheika who he believes are the best coaches in rugby league and rugby union respectively.
And while Cheika mentioned the Australian trio of Craig Bellamy, Trent Robinson and Wayne Bennett as the best coaches in the 13-a-side code, he was unequivocal in his response to the same question regarding rugby union.
‘That’s eight years’ worth of continuity and success’
“If you flick over to rugby, you can’t, well, you really can’t go past a coach who’s led his country to two World Cups,” he said. “It’s pretty hard to go past. That’s eight years’ worth of continuity and success.
“And people can say, oh, yeah, he’s got a great playing pool and all that, but you’ve still got to make those players play better and stay at that consistent level.
“And so (Rassie) Erasmus has been able to acquire such consistency with his team, and he’s building a bit of a monolith there. They’re even looking harder to stop.
“And along the way, they’ve created success by winning Rugby Championships several times. They’ve had a lot of success on November tours when they’ve come up to the North. And then as well, they’ve been able to have success in two World Cups.
“You can’t go past that.”
Cheika admitted that he relishes the challenge of measuring himself against the game’s top coaches like Erasmus.
“I think it’s the challenge of being able to outmanoeuvre,” he explained. “There’s different types of manoeuvring, right? Rassie would be one of the kings of trying to outmanoeuvre you off the field as well, you know; media, YouTube, (he) loves a YouTube line as well, you know.
“But he uses it to influence the game, influence you, influence the mentality that you bring.
“You meet coaches then, say offline, post-match in a dressing room or once the battle’s sort of over, it’s a very different vibe, you know.
“So, there is that. And I think you learn a lot too, coming up against, you know, coaches who have got different strategies that you might have or a different mentality to coaching.”
He also revealed that he spent some quality time with the Springboks during the 2021 Rugby Championship and got a closer view on what makes them so successful.
“We spent, when I was coaching Argentina and there was COVID happening, we spent two weeks in quarantine in the Gold Coast with South Africa,” said Cheika.
“And we stayed in Sanctuary Cove, which had everything there, I’m sure you guys have stayed there, you know, the fields.
‘We got to know some of the South African players’
“And so we just had the whole resort to ourselves. We had barbecues, socialising, it was great. And we got to know some of the South African players.
“And I heard a little bit around the background of the mindset, you know, I wouldn’t waste probing for questions. What could I find out? So I can attack it there from behind, you know, but I think it is good.
“It’s good fun to get in there and challenge yourself against the different coaches and different teams.
“That’s part of the battle, you know.”
