Rugby Australia puts Christmas deadline on decision over Cheika future

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika may know before Christmas whether he will lead Australia to next year’s Rugby World Cup in Japan.

The board of Rugby Australia met for the final time this year in Sydney yesterday and made no definitive statement on the future of Cheika, whose team has lost an unprecedented nine Tests in the past season. One of the men tipped as a possible successor to Cheika is SRU director of elite rugby Scott Johnson, pictured, who was a previous attack coach for his native Australia.

Rugby Australia chairman Cameron Clyne took no questions at a news conference which lasted less than a minute but his brief statement was seen as significant because, for the first time, RA did not express explicit support for Cheika.

“We’ve had a presentation from Michael, we’ve had some data gathered from him, from his coaching staff, from his players and from our high-performance unit and we need to go through a fairly thorough review process,” Clyne said. “Obviously we’ll have more to say and will have that process wrapped up ahead of Christmas.”

Rugby Australia has been under pressure for much of the year to make a firm decision on the future of Cheika, who guided Australia to the World Cup final in 2015 but seems unable to arrest the declining form of the Wallabies.

The clock appears to be ticking 10 months from the World Cup as the longer the board takes to reach a decision, the less time there will be to find and install a new coach and the less time that coach has to prepare the team for the quadrennial tournament.

Eddie Jones has also been linked with a return to the Australia job, with Edinburgh coach Richard Cockerill in turn put forward at the weekend as a possible successor as England boss.

Former England hooker Cockerill, who is contracted with Edinburgh until 2021, which is the same situation as Jones is in with England, played down such a prospect in a radio interview and yesterday Stuart Lancaster became the latest to shrug off being linked with a return to the job he lost after the poor home World Cup showing in 2015.

Lancaster said the speculation was “hypothetical” and told the BBC that he is enjoying his day-to-day role as senior coach at Leinster and is involved in talks to extend his stay with the Irish province.