“It’s been a crazy week” – Lebanon fall victim to two hotel robberies
Lebanon head coach Michael Cheika thankfully saw the lighter side of his side’s horror week, having found themselves victims of two separate robberies in their team hotel.
It was reported earlier this week that intruders had stolen equipment, and Chieka revealed the crime reoccured on Saturday night in their Manchester-based hotel.
The 55-year-old dual-international coach said most of the stolen items were his own personal equipment, including laptops, while they managed to get their hands back on the playing kit.
The distraction didn’t cause too much of an upset for the Cedars in their World Cup tournament, going on to defeat Jamaica 74-12 in Leigh and secure their place in the quarter-finals.
“We had another intruder last night,” Cheika revealed in his post-match press conference at the Leigh Sports Village. “They say we’re part-timers, I think the other part-time is security work at the moment.
“Someone came in the team room and I’m not too sure what happened. They called me, thank goodness, so I got down there and settled it all down and the police did their bit after that.
“It was an early kick-off, so I didn’t want to run down the street chasing blokes at 10 o’clock at night. They thought they were on an episode of ‘Law and Order’, they didn’t know what they were doing the fellas.
“It’s been a bit of a crazy week with all that happening. We’ve tried not to have it as a distraction.”
No Argentina resources stolen says Michael Cheika
The side were first targeted by thieves earlier this week. Cheika said: “I woke up in the morning to do a zoom early morning. I went down to the team room and everything was gone. I didn’t even think about it, I went to the hotel guys and said is there something going on and they said we’ve been robbed.
“We got our strip back, that’s the main thing. The first thing I’d have stolen would have been the Lebanese jerseys, but he left those behind.
“I think everybody has handled those distractions well. Now we’re pushing on past that and looking ahead.”
Cheika will combine his role as the head coach of Lebanon alongside his Argentina duties, who face England this Sunday.
“Put it this way, we don’t have a lot of resources to have a lot of team equipment. So, most of the stuff was mine, my own stuff,” Cheika continued.
“There was nothing Argentina. I’ve tried really hard not to mix the two. Even to the point where I wouldn’t put the same stuff on one computer. I think I’ve got to keep a division between the two.”
🇱🇧 Abbas Miski shares a special moment with his sister and nephew after the full-time hooter ❤️
The Cedars face Australia in the quarter-finals next week!#RugbyLeague | #RLWC2021 pic.twitter.com/aQXguSu2Zk
— Love Rugby League (@loverugbyleague) October 30, 2022
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