press, with speculation rife that the administration were unable to afford to terminate Cheika's contract. 2019 saw much change in the Australian set-up, beginning with the sacking of Stephen Larkham as attack coach and the introduction of a selection panel made up of Cheika, newly selected Director of Rugby Scott Johnson and Michael O'Connor who acts as an independent away from the national team coaching team. The new process started with a 35–17 loss to South Africa in the opening round of the 2019 Rugby Championship. The following week, Australia gained just their first win of the Championship, defeating Argentina 16–10. However it was the final match against New Zealand that proved a success, after winning 47–26, a joint record defeat for the All Blacks; through this result meant a win in the second Bledisloe Cup match meant Australia would reclaim the title for the first time since 2002. However, the Wallabies lost 36–0 to see the trophy remain in New Zealand. At the 2019 Rugby World Cup Australia won three of their four pool matches but a close loss to led to a quarter-final fixture with . A defeat by 40–16 in that match ended the Australian campaign and the following day Cheika announced that he would resign as head coach by the end of the year. His contract had been due to expire following the World Cup. Green Rockets In May 2021, Cheika was appointed director of rugby of the Japanese rugby union team Green Rockets. Argentina 2022–2023 In March 2022 it was confirmed that Cheika would coach the Argentina national rugby union team from 2022 through to the 2023 Rugby World Cup, with assistant coach Felipe Contepomi taking over post-World Cup. Cheika's first matches as coach came against Scotland in a three-test home series. Starting half-back Tomás Cubelli was ruled out of the series due to injury acquired in training, while starting fly-half Nicolás Sánchez was replaced in game one after twenty-one minutes of play (calf tear). Argentina won the first game (26–18) in a tight back-and-forth match in San Salvador de Jujuy. Although the first test was a close win for Argentina, the second was a dominant blowout win for Scotland (6–29), scoring four tries to zero. Scotland also kept Argentina scoreless in the second-half, levelling the series 1–1. Scotland also levelled the overall record between the two sides (10–10). In the third and final test,