Rugby/Leinster's new coaching team: Gerry Thornley talks to Bob Dwyer, the former World Cup-winning coach of Australia, who gives a ringing endorsement toMichael Cheika and David Knox.

Bob Dwyer, the former World Cup-winning coach of Australia, is among those to have given a ringing endorsement of Michael Cheika, the 38-year-old Randwick coach who has been confirmed as Leinster's successor to Declan Kidney, as reported in Tuesday's Irish Times. Cheika arrived in Dublin yesterday with his coaching partner, David Knox, and completed negotiations on three-year deals.

Like Dwyer, Alan Gaffney, Waratahs coach Ewen McKenzie and Glen Ella among others, Cheika is a product of the famed coaching conveyor belt at Randwick. "There will be some very disappointed people back in Australia," commented Dwyer, who is coaching the Barbarians on their end-of-season British tour. "There's no reason why one day he won't coach Australia. 'Check' had been earmarked for higher things and I'm sure that will still happen."

"This is a fantastic opportunity to come to Leinster at this stage in my career," said Cheika yesterday. "The class level of player is high here and to implement the type of game plan that I will look to introduce you need top quality players. I'm looking forward to competing again in the Heineken Cup. I have some experience of what to expect from my time in Italy. It is important we are successful in the Celtic League and it's important to combine both competitions so that we can strive for consistency.

"David (Knox) will bring a lot of innovation and a new way of looking at back play to Leinster. He will help us to evolve a 15-man game and I'm looking forward to this exciting opportunity."

Leinster have taken a gamble in not going for a more experienced coaching ticket, but with the innovative Knox alongside Cheika, Dwyer predicts, "It'll be exciting, and they (Leinster) couldn't have done better than they did".

Cheika, a former Australian under-21, had a distinguished playing career at number eight with Randwick, making 212 first-class appearances and winning seven Premiership titles between 1985 and 1999. He also played with Castres, New South Wales, CASG Paris and Livorno, before coaching Padova for a season and then, with Knox, rejuvenated Randwick for the last three years, culminating in an unbeaten championship-winning year last season.

Knox (41), was a team-mate of Cheika's at Randwick, where he featured in eight Premiership teams. A superb distributor and kicker, known as "The Wizard", Knox won 13 caps for Australia (with a 10-3 win-loss ratio) in a career which took in Petrarca, Bristol, Natal Sharks, Narbonne and Livorno before coaching stints with the ACT Brumbies and, alongside Cheika, at Padova and Randwick.

"Michael is a very successful businessman and is definitely not coaching for the money," says Dwyer in reference to Cheika's clothing manufacturing business, which has outlets in New York, London and Japan, "which is quite amazing in that business, especially for one so young. He's coaching simply because he wants to coach.

"At Randwick, he did a terrific job in terms of man management. He developed a very strong squad of maybe 24 players and had to keep them all happy. He managed that very well with a very successful team that was undefeated in the championship, which is not that easy."

Under Cheika, Randwick have been true to their principles of playing a high-tempo ball-in-hand game although according to Dwyer, "he'll choose which way to play the game depending on the opposition, so there may be some variation.

"He himself was a hard, uncompromising forward," added Dwyer, who conceded that Cheika was known to incur the wrath of referees and the odd red card in his career too. "He wasn't Robinson Crusoe," laughs Dwyer.

Of Lebanese extraction, Dwyer says of Cheika: "He's a very nice, intelligent, calm, composed person . . . He's very much a hands-on, on-the-pitch coach. He appears to be pretty laid back, and is what you might call a groovy sort of customer, which to the modern player is maybe better than the old-fashioned conservative type of rugby person, but he's a strong character. He won't compromise his ideals. He speaks very well and has a very non-conservative approach to life. In fact he could become a bit of a star in his own right, which he may not really want."

Having been overlooked in preference to the former All Blacks' coach John Mitchell for newly-created Super 14 franchise in Perth, Cheika declined to become the assistant there, as he had done at the Waratahs. He clearly wants to be his own man, with Knox a key part of the equation.

Knox was coached by Dwyer when he played outhalf for the Wallabies. "He's definitely a very unusual character, but by the same token there are very, very few people who know more about the specifics and the detail of back play," commented Dwyer. "I had plenty of set-tos with him in his playing days about time-keeping and the like. He has a very bohemian attitude to life but his knowledge of the game and his ability to impart his knowledge of back-line play is fantastic."

A schoolteacher, Knox was one of the few Australians to have played schools rugby and cricket for his country. "Knoxy never had great pace himself and he wasn't one of the great tacklers, but he had great finesse. He had superb hands and was a brilliant kicker. He was always exceptional on the training ground in fine-tuning back play, and you could see then he was always going to have the makings of a good coach. Mind you, you might need an interpreter at times," warns Dwyer light-heartedly. "Knoxy walks to the beat of a different drum and talks this strange jive language, and if you're not in the inner circle then you might struggle."

A sizeable exodus on the playing front will give them some input into new signings. With Victor Costello retired and Shane Jennings, Aidan McCullen and Leo Cullen departed, Leinster had looked at resigning Bob Casey (but he has another year on his contract at London Irish).

Among those Leinster have been sounding out are the All Blacks' lock Norm Maxwell (but he appears to be heading towards Japan), Wayne Ormond, a New Zealand backrower who has been picked in the Maori squad to play the Lions, Paul Miller, a 27-year-old number eight with Southland who has played for the Otago Highlanders and the New Zealand A side, Anton Leonard, the 31-year-old number eight with the Blue Bulls, and Hottie Louw, the Springbok lock.

There is likely to be a change of captaincy as well, with Reggie Corrigan stepping down and Brian O'Driscoll the likeliest successor from a shortlist also containing Keith Gleeson and Felipe Contepomi.