Cheika firms as favourite for Wallabies job

By Nick Mulvenney SYDNEY (Reuters) - Michael Cheika is firming as favourite to replace Ewen McKenzie as Australia rugby coach this week but it remains to be seen whether he would want to join an organisation that has shown itself to be so dysfunctional over the last two weeks. McKenzie quit just hours before the Wallabies lost 29-28 to New Zealand in Brisbane as a result of the turmoil surrounding the squad after utility back Kurtley Beale allegedly sent offensive text messages to a team official. New South Wales Waratahs coach Cheika is bound to top Australian Rugby Union (ARU) chief Bill Pulver's list of potential recruits after he brought the Super Rugby trophy to Sydney for the first time this year. Jake White, who coached South Africa to World Cup triumph in 2007 and recently took up an advisory role with Tonga, is another possible candidate after being sounded out about the job last year before losing out to McKenzie. There is a sense of urgency about Pulver's search for two reasons -- most immediately he needs someone on the plane with the squad on Friday for their four-test tour of Europe, and secondly because the World Cup is little more than a year away. With a curtailed Rugby Championship and no June test series next year, a new coach that misses out on the tour of Europe, where Australia play World Cup group rivals England and Wales, would have precious little time to put his imprint on the squad. Pulver flatly denied on Sunday that he had approached any coaches about the job over the last two weeks as the media storm over the Beale row destabilised McKenzie's position. "I've got a lot of options. I have had no conversations with any other coaches," he told reporters in Brisbane. "Today we're trying to work out where we are at and make some progress from there. "I did not expect Ewen McKenzie to resign yesterday. I don't even know who can get on a plane on Friday." BUSY WEEK Pulver said he had "a busy week ahead" and that week still looks likely to include the hearing into the Beale affair, which has now cost the Wallabies their team business manager Di Patston and head coach McKenzie. The handling of the saga inevitably raised questions about the competence of the organisation Pulver leads, questions that will only intensify after McKenzie's sudden departure. Should he be approached about the job, Cheika, independently wealthy because of his interest in an online fashion company and famously combustible on occasion, may decide he does not need the hassle that goes with the position. Far better for him, perhaps, to enjoy the fruits of his two-year transformation of the Waratahs in the final year of his contract and see how the cards fall after next year's World Cup. South African White might be keener but is less attractive simply because his controlled, percentage-based style of rugby -- or "Jake-Ball" -- does not resonate with Australia's idea of how the game should be played. Pulver said he remained convinced that Australia had the players to win the World Cup next year, a feeling intensified after they led the All Blacks into the last few seconds of the match in Brisbane on Saturday. Highly regarded former Wallaby turned media pundit Rod Kafer is one of those convinced Cheika is the coach to finish the job McKenzie started. "He's the natural man to do it, he has had much success and is loved because of the way he has the Waratahs playing," he told Fox Sport TV. "He brought back a style of play people were yearning for." (Editing by Peter Rutherford)