Cheika: I held on too long

Michael Cheika says he should have resigned as Wallabies coach nine months before the failed 2019 Rugby World Cup campaign and his acrimonious exit.

In an interview with the Times, Cheika said he ‘‘compromised’’ himself by continuing in the job after Scott Johnson was appointed above him as Rugby Australia’s director of rugby in December 2018, and a three-person selection panel was installed comprised of Johnson, Cheika and Michael O’connor.

Johnson was hired by RA after a review of the Wallabies’ poor 2018 season, during which the national side lost nine of 13 tests – the worst Wallabies season since 1958.

Though Cheika’s future as coach was on the line, the RA board backed him to continue in the job through to the World Cup, but brought in Johnson as an oversight measure and added more voices to the selection table.

‘‘In a footy team there can only be one boss, that’s all there is to it,’’ Cheika told the Times.

‘‘I should have left because that shows they didn’t trust me anymore. But I loved Australian rugby and I thought I could do it, I believed I could get the players together and I didn’t want to let the players and the supporters down. I compromised myself in that way. In reflection, that’s a lot easier to assess.

‘‘I tried to manage it the best way I could without being out of order.

‘‘If you cause turbulence at that point, everyone feels it and I didn’t need everyone to feel the turbulence in the team. You have to deal with it internally. Apart from the one day when we left Japan, I never spoke about it publicly.’’

After the Wallabies were knocked out of the Rugby World Cup by England, Cheika stepped down as head coach and fired a parting shot at former chief executive Raelene Castle by saying he had almost ‘‘no relationship with the CEO and not much with the chairman [Cameron Clyne].’’

The Sydney Morning Herald later revealed Castle had apologised to World Rugby for the behaviour of some of the Wallabies management at the World Cup and that Cheika and the former RA chief executive had engaged in a heated public argument at the Australian embassy in Tokyo.

Cheika told the Times he had not been contacted since by anybody from RA management, and was not asked to contribute to a post-world Cup review.