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Cheika trail at Montpellier going cold as surprise new favourite emerges to succeed Vern Cotter

Michael Cheika and Vern Cotter

After the curtain fell on Australia’s recent World Cup campaign in Japan, Michael Cheika was as good as his word in stepping away from his job in charge of the Wallabies after failing to build on 2015’s final appearance. 

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His departure on the back of a quarter-final defeat to England opened the door for Dave Rennie’s appointment as his successor and it was widely speculated at the time that Cheika would soon resurface in France as Montpellier’s new director of rugby. 

However, that trail has now apparently gone cold if reports coming out of France are to be believed. 

Instead of the Australian being lined up to succeed Kiwi Vern Cotter, who is stepping away from the director of rugby role in 2020, a surprise French local has now emerged as the front-runner for the post.     

Philippe Saint-Andre hasn’t worked in a dressing room since France’s 2015 World Cup came to a juddering halt with a humiliating defeat by the All Blacks in the quarter-finals in Cardiff. But he is now said to be leading the charge to become Mohed Altrad’s new man.

(Continue reading below…) 

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The Montpellier owner had approached Cheika at the end of October but it appears that these negotiations were nowhere near fruitful. 

In the meantime, France Television, in a story picked up by Midi Olympique, have now placed Saint-Andre at the head of the queue. 

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“Free of any contract since the end of the 2015 World Cup, Saint-Andre is indeed part of a short-list of personalities established by Mohed Altrad in order to offer the MHR a new director of rugby,” it reported. 

“And it is even rumoured that the strong man of the club absolutely wants to convince PSA.”

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J
JW 1 hour ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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