Former Wallabies head coach Michael Cheika is no longer Montpellier’s first-choice to take over as the new director of rugby according to reports in France.
Cheika, who stepped aside as Australia’s head coach following their Rugby World Cup quarter-final exit, has been linked as Vern Cotter’s successor ever since.
With Cotter set to leave the director of rugby role come the end of the season, many assumed that Cheika would be brought in, some reports even suggested he could be in the new job by January.
However, it now appears that Phillipe Saint-Andre has become the front-runner for Mohed Altrad, the club’s owner.
Both France Television and Midi Olympique have backed up the story and believe that although Saint-Andre has been a free agent since France’s 2015 Rugby World Cup campaign, he is now in line for the position.
“Free of any contract since the end of the 2015 World Cup, Saint-Andre is indeed part of a short-list of personalities established by Mohed Altrad in order to offer the MHR a new director of rugby. And it is even rumoured that the strong man of the club absolutely wants to convince PSA,” a report by France Television stated.
It would be a big blow for Cheika, who has apparently been in talks with Altrad since October and with his previous work in France being seen as a success it seems as though it would be a strange decision to pick Saint-Andre ahead of him.
