Foley and Michael Cheika last worked together in 2014, when the fly-half kicked the penalty that won the Waratahs their only Super Rugby title.
Bernard Foley on Cheika’s Waratahs return: “Excited to get to work under him again”
Foley says he is “really excited to get to work under him again” after reports that Michael Cheika will return as head coach of the NSW Waratahs on a two-year deal covering the 2027 and 2028 Super Rugby Pacific seasons. The 76-cap fly-half, who signed for the Waratahs for 2027 earlier this month, was speaking on Stan Sport’s Between Two Posts, recorded on Monday 17 August, hours after the Sydney Morning Herald reported that terms were being finalised.
Foley, 36, has a longer history with Cheika than almost anyone at the club. He kicked the late penalty that beat the Crusaders 33-32 at Stadium Australia in the 2014 final — the Waratahs’ only title, and the one Cheika delivered in his second season in charge.
Asked for his reaction on air, Foley pointed to the range of work Cheika has done since leaving Australian rugby.
“He’s been away, he’s gone and done so many different things — with rugby league, with international rugby, with coaching in the Premiership. I’m really excited to get to work under him again and to see how he’s evolved, and what this team can do.”
Bernard Foley, speaking on Between Two Posts
Cheika, 59, coached the Waratahs from 2013 to 2015 before taking the Wallabies to the 2015 Rugby World Cup final and winning World Rugby’s coach of the year award that season. He later coached Argentina to the 2023 World Cup semi-finals and spent 2024-25 at Leicester Tigers. He remains the only coach to have won the top club competition in both hemispheres, with Leinster in 2009 and the Waratahs in 2014.
He is currently an assistant at NRL side the Sydney Roosters and is committed to coaching Lebanon at this year’s Rugby League World Cup in October, which is why the Super Rugby appointment would not begin until 2027.
The job has been vacant since Dan McKellar resigned with a year remaining on his contract, and Cheika did not apply when Rugby Australia called for expressions of interest. Reports indicate Rugby Australia approached him directly.
Foley: continuity is the thing that has been missing
Foley also raised the club’s coaching churn as the problem a long-term appointment has to solve, pointing to the absence of continuity and succession planning across four or five head coaches in six years, and the player turnover that has come with it. He argued that if Cheika takes the job, the Waratahs should be identifying his eventual successor immediately rather than repeating the cycle.
On what the appointment would mean for the playing group, Foley said Cheika “wants to play a style that inspires — and the players want to go out and perform for him.”
Rugby Australia has not confirmed the appointment. The Herald reported an announcement was expected later in the week.
Bernard foleys opinion:What’s next for the Wallabies
Bernard Foley’s Between Two Posts appearance came after Australia’s win over Japan in Townsville, the second Test of Les Kiss’s opening series. The Wallabies now travel to Argentina for two Tests in the Puma Trophy: Saturday 29 August at the Estadio 23 de Agosto in San Salvador de Jujuy, and Saturday 5 September at the Estadio Malvinas Argentinas in Mendoza.
It is the first time Australia have played a Test in Jujuy. South Africa follow on 27 September, before a two-Test Bledisloe Cup series in New Zealand on 10 October and at Accor Stadium in Sydney on 17 October.
