Michael Cheika, the latest man to be inserted into the Wallabies coaching hot seat, is a success.

The Wallabies, for so long blighted by cultural squabbles and squads without the star power of yesteryear, are praying some of it will rub off.

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Cheika was once a very successful businessman – with referees like Australian fashion designer Collette Dinnigan – who coaches for love and not money.

It’s hard to imagine, seeing him prowl the touchline in a Waratahs hoody, but Cheika is a fashion mogul.

Cheika’s old boss Collette Dinnigan. Photo: Getty

He worked for Dinnigan as a business manager – answering an ad no less – and formed a clothing distribution company, Live Fashion, which made him a wealthy man.

He is also a successful coach. He took control of the Waratahs after their disastrous 2012 campaign and two years later they were Super Rugby champions.

He is also a good juggler. He has four children under five.

And now, 15 years after the former No.8 began his coaching career with Italian club Padova, the 47-year-old has the top job in Australian rugby.

According to Cheika’s profile on the NSW Waratahs website, his success in business and in coaching is founded on three fundamental principles: leadership, management and technical expertise.

How the Wallabies could use a little of those.

The coach’s position has become a poisoned chalice. Cheika is the fourth man to take the reins since Eddie Jones won the 2003 World Cup.

John ‘Knuckles’ Connolly lasted only two years, despite some good results, while Robbie Deans was given tenure even when it was clear he’d let malignant elements (O’Connor, Beale and others) survive and fester.

Ewen McKenzie looked a good appointment but made decisions that left his position untenable.

Which brings us to Cheika.

“I don’t see it as a risky job whatsoever,” he said on Wednesday at the press conference to officially announce his appointment.

On the surface, the son of Lebanese migrants looks to have the makings of an international rugby coach: a proudly unshaven face (which man of substance has time to shave anyway?) and cauliflower ears are badges testifying to his capacity to work and take punishment.

Those close to Cheika speak of his man management, focus and smarts. He’s fluent in French and Italian.

Not-so-fashionable Michael Cheika in his Waratahs hoodie. Photo: Getty

“He has the most amazing disposition and demeanour,” the designer Dinnigan said of Cheika in an article in The Australian.

She described Cheika as “gentle, kind and considerate” but added he can “be quite intimidating, too”.

“He is quite forceful. He is very driven. But no one has walked away without respecting him. He is like a gentle giant,” she said.

Not always. The fiery coach smashed a door after a Super Rugby loss this year, and was under a suspended ban for verbally abusing a cameraman during a game in South Africa.

Former Wallabies skipper Simon Poidevin said Cheika’s challenge when he became Waratahs coach was cultural.

“Michael’s top priority was the culture of the team. It had to change dramatically,” he said.

His job with the Wallabies is the same, only on a grander scale. Kurtley Beale may be on the outer for now, but he still has mates on the inside.

Skipper Michael Hooper has publicly backed Beale, even after the nature of the messages he sent to staffer Di Patston became clear.

“I hope KB stays in rugby union and Australian rugby union,” Hooper said.

“We are backing Kurtley. I enjoy having him around the team and he is quality on the field.”

Cultural overhaul, mending divisions across state lines and restoring battered confidence and bruised pride will all be high on the priority list for Cheika.

“I don’t expect anything,” Cheika said in an interview shortly after being appointed Waratahs coach. “Expectation only leads to regret.”

He may not expect anything, but Australian rugby fans and his boss Bill Pulver certainly do.

Let’s hope they don’t regret it.