Michael Cheika will vacate his role as Leicester’s head coach at the end of the current season to return home to Australia.
In a blow to both the Tigers and the Premiership as a whole, Cheika, one of the most blockbuster coaching arrivals in the history of the English domestic game, has decided against taking the option of a second year at Mattioli Woods Welford Road in order to return to his family in his native Australia.
Telegraph Sport understands that Cheika informed the club of his decision with a heavy heart this week, with the 57-year-old professionally keen to continue with Leicester.
The Tigers had been actively trying to keep Cheika’s services for at least one more season, with the Australian having impressed both the playing squad and the executive team, but the head coach has decided that he could no longer spend so much time away from his Sydney-based family, despite having settled in at Welford Road.
The 11-time Premiership winners have drawn up a shortlist to succeed Cheika with three names emerging as contenders: club legend Graham Rowntree, Glasgow’s Franco Smith and former England and South Africa assistant coach Felix Jones. Telegraph Sport understands, however, that Jones is reluctant to step away from the international game while Richard Wigglesworth, England’s senior assistant coach and a former Premiership winner with Leicester, was also in the frame.
Cheika arrived in the East Midlands at short notice ahead of this season following the abrupt sacking of Dan McKellar after a campaign in which the Tigers failed to qualify for the Premiership play-offs. At the time, Cheika’s family had just moved from Paris to Sydney en masse and the Australian was to follow suit until Leicester came calling with a coaching SOS.
Under the Australian, who has previously coached the Wallabies and Argentina at international level, the Tigers’ fortunes – not to mention performances – have improved. Leicester are in prime position for a Premiership top-four spot and have qualified for the Champions Cup knockouts, a competition in which Cheika tasted success in 2009, lifting the trophy with Leinster. Ironically, Leicester take on Smith’s Glasgow in the last-16 round this season.
Regardless, the Tigers must once again find and appoint a new head coach, the eighth in eight seasons, although it is understood that contingency planning in the case of Cheika’s departure had been under way for some time and that the next appointment, whichever candidate it may be, will be long-term.
Telegraph Sport approached Leicester for comment.
