Former Leinster head coach and current Wallabies head coach Michael Cheika has talked about some of his more unusual training techniques during his time in Ireland.
Cheika was in Dublin along with all involved with the 2009 Heineken Cup victory, to mark the 10-year anniversary of the provinces first European Cup.
Speaking at a dinner to mark the occasion Cheika revealed that he used to get involved in the contact training sessions and that players had no idea what to do to him.
“I think I was mid-thirties and I would jump into training – the contact (sessions). The blokes didn’t know whether to bash me or what to do,” he said.
However, that all changed once Jamie Heaslip took it upon himself to make his presence known with the head coach.
“It wasn’t until Heaslip took me one that it turned into a free for all. Everyone wanted to belt me! It was just the idea that you had to have a bit of edge. I’m not going to say I thought it with some great strategy – it’s just who I am. Hopefully that rubbed off to one person and they liked that, and then it rubbed off onto another person. Tactics and techniques all came later,” he added.
Cheika was joined on stage by Leinster legends Brian O’Driscoll and Shane Horgan while he talked about the different methods.
He went on to discuss the recruitment side of things and focused on Isa Nacewa who would turn out to be one of the best players the province has had.
“That guy was playing fly-half one week, wing the next, playing full-back, kicking goals from the side-line, running the show one minute, and never complaining. You never saw any bad body language and always enthusiastic about the game,” he continued.
Nacewa himself went on to talk about how the squad of 2009 was nothing like the squad to today.
“I don’t like to compare squads but when you compare 10 years ago to what it is now today, we were a bunch of misfits. It was the end of the old school era, if you could say that. So many characters in the team. It’s so awesome to be back and having a beer with them, which is pretty cool,” he said.
He noted that the semi-final win over rivals Munster was a highlight of his career within a season where the team as a whole performed at an average level in his eyes.
“If you actually look back on the season as a whole we lost a crap tonne of games. I don’t know how we got through really, but we dug it out. The Croke Park game in 2009 (against Munster) is one of the highlights of my career… you look back and think how important that day was. It was a bit of a milestone really, so that stands out in my eyes,” he added.
Although Leinster won their first European Cup 10-years ago, not many would have predicted how successful the club would become going on to win a further three cups already.
