Lebanon's Rugby League World Cup campaign will conclude with a final group match against France on Sunday at 06:50 GMT, and coach Michael Cheika insists his side will treat the fixture as a Grand Final despite having already been eliminated from knockout contention.
The Cedars suffered defeats to Papua New Guinea and Tonga in their opening two matches of the abridged 2026 tournament, ending their hopes of reaching the quarter-finals they achieved under Cheika four years ago. The 59-year-old Australian, who has coached in World Cup, Heineken Cup and Super Rugby finals in rugby union, said the game against France carries the same weight for his players.
Cheika: 'This is our Grand Final'
"We've got the one game here against France on Sunday and it's really our Grand Final," Cheika said. "I know it'll be for France as well, knowing some players inside of their team. I suppose it's not the climax of the tournament, but definitely for us this is a finals fixture and we're approaching it that way." Lebanon had only one fixture between the previous World Cup and this one, making the opportunity to represent the country on a world stage especially rare.
Personal heritage drives motivation
Born to Lebanese migrants whose family left the country in 1950, Cheika believes every chance to fly the flag for Lebanon is significant. "The people in Lebanon are watching. I know my own relatives, they're watching and how often do they get to support their national teams on the world stage? How often do you get to support the flag? Compare it to Aussies, we're getting to support a national team every five minutes, right? For the Lebanese, it's not that simple and I just think the ability to let people see that their team is playing on the world stage is a buzz."
Cheika recounted his father's arrival in Australia, where the local Lebanese church in Redfern stood across from Redfern Oval, home of the South Sydney Rabbitohs. "That very working class Lebanese migrant that came here, they really connected to the game of rugby league. And I think now for the boys to be able to represent their heritage in their area of expertise, their passion, that's something I never thought I could do."
Navigating two rugby codes
Cheika's last role in the 15-a-side game was with Leicester Tigers for the 2024-25 season, and he will return to the Waratahs, where he won a Super Rugby title in 2014, for next year's campaign. Fluent in Arabic, French and Italian, he likens switching between rugby league and union to moving between languages. "You find out there's different grammar, different sentence construction. There's different emphasis on words or different accents, but at the end of the day, the values of what the player needs to have, those things are the same. Courage, aggression, commitment, the trust in your team-mates, all those types of things are the same."
Work has already begun in the background for his Waratahs return, but Cheika does not believe Sunday's game will be his last in league. "It's been unreal, I've got to admit. Last year, I think, was my 27th year coaching and it was something so fresh. I feel like I'll cross back and forth a few more times yet, hopefully, before no one wants to know about me any longer."
