Cheika appointed Leicester head coach

Leicester Tigers have appointed former Australia and Argentina boss Michael Cheika as their head coach.

The 57-year-old succeeds fellow Australian Dan McKellar at the Premiership side, with the former ACT Brumbies boss leaving by mutual consent last week.

Cheika, who guided Leinster to European glory with a win against Leicester in the 2009 Heineken Cup final, left his post with Argentina after guiding the Pumas to a fourth-placed finish at last year's Rugby World Cup.

"Honestly, I wasn't looking at the Premiership and didn't have the desire to coach in it until Leicester Tigers came to me," Cheika told the club website.

"But, the opportunity to coach at Tigers and lead this group of players turned my head."

Cheika had a stint in charge of French club Stade Francais and went on to guide Australian side Waratahs to a Super Rugby title before moving onto the international rugby stage as Wallabies boss.

He had spent five years at the helm of the Australian side and after leaving in 2019 he took on as assistant coaching role with Argentina before taking over as boss in 2022.

While with Argentina, he also juggled being head coach of the Lebanon national rugby league side, who he guided to the knock-out stage of the World Cup in 2022.

The Leicester Tigers job now sees him move back to club rugby for the first time in a decade.