Michael Cheika made a fortune in fashion but dresses unfashionably and is acclaimed as one of world's best rugby coaches when he was just a decent workhorse player.

The 48-year-old handler of a team many people now consider serious challengers for the World Cup may look like a well-cuddled teddy bear with the trademark cauliflower ears of a scrummager, but he has the ability to bite back.

His colourful outbursts are however balanced by thoughtful insights, about rugby and life. And as a speaker of Arabic, French, Italian and English, he puts many of his more moneyed and university-educated rugby counterparts to shame.

Cheika had a modest upbringing, the son of Lebanese immigrants who arrived in Australia with just AUS $20 in 1950 and settled in the unfashionable Sydney district of Coogee.

He has not forgotten those roots and spoke of how he wished the Wallaby team who will take on England Saturday could be a mix of people just as he has seen in Lebanon.