Michael Cheika (born 4 March 1967) is an Australian rugby union and rugby league coach, and former rugby union player. He is currently head coach of Argentina in rugby union and Lebanon in rugby league. Cheika was the coach of the Australia rugby union team from 2014 to 2019. In 2015, he received the World Rugby Coach of the Year award. He is the only coach to have won the major rugby club competition in each hemisphere, winning the Heineken Cup with Leinster in 2009 and Super Rugby with the New South Wales Waratahs in 2014. During his career, Cheika was also head coach at Padova, Randwick and Stade Français. Cheika is a second-generation Lebanese Australian; his parents immigrated to Australia during the 1950s. Rugby union career Playing career Cheika was a No. 8 who played for Australia at under 21 level. He played more than 300 games for Randwick, winning the Shute Shield seven times during a period when the Galloping Greens dominated Sydney rugby. As a player, Cheika made a mid-career move to Europe in 1989 where he had two seasons in the South of France with Castres Olympique in Division 1, and a season for Paris team Club Athlétique des Sports Généraux (later merged with Stade Français) in Division 2. He then joined Italian side Rugby Livorno alongside Randwick teammate David Knox from 1992 to 1994. He represented an Italian Selection XV against the All Blacks in 1993. Returning to Australia, he captained Randwick from 1997 and 1999, and represented New South Wales on their spring tour of the UK in 1997. Coaching career Padova and Randwick Cheika had never coached before but in 1999 David Campese brought his attention to a coaching job in Italy. He applied for it and was successful. Cheika and Knox coached Petrarca Padova through a Heineken Cup campaign which did not yield any wins. Cheika returned to Sydney in 2001 when his father fell ill. With European coaching experience under his belt he secured the Randwick coaching ticket and guided his old club to a Shute Shield victory in 2004. Leinster In 2005, Cheika replaced Declan Kidney as head coach at Leinster. Mick Dawson, Leinster's chief executive, described it as a calculated punt. Kidney had left in contentious circumstances having agreed to a move to rivals Munster before the season's end and Leinster were said to be in disarray. Cheika brought