Cheika to unleash new Wallabies on England
Australia and England will go head-to-head in a three-match Test series in June.
Cheika said the heavy workload of the overseas-based Wallabies will mean they will get a break in June and only return for the Rugby Championship – which gets underway towards the end of August.
Cheika said he had spoken to several Wallabies players during a trip to Europe – when he watched Six Nations matches – and while they were all keen to play this season, it might not be against England.
Cheika said it is unlikely players who had completed a full European season would be considered for the England series.
Among the overseas-based players whose fitness will be managed are France-based backs Drew Mitchell and Matt Giteau, prop Sekope Kepu, scrumhalf Will Genia and utility back Adam Ashley-Cooper.
"Guys who have had a full season, it's unlikely they will be playing in June and that's a good opportunity for us to get some new players in because we're very keen to grow the base of players that can really contribute to the team," Cheika said.
"The only way to do that is to give them opportunities and then after they (the overseas-based players) have had a bit of a break at the end of their season, we'll look at selection for the Rugby Championship."
* Meanwhile Cheika said he also doesn't share the pessimism around Australia's Super Rugby teams that plenty have thrown around in recent weeks.
With just one team – the Rebels – sitting in play-off contention at the halfway mark of the season, experts have criticised depth and quality of Australian sides, but Cheika isn't buying into the negativity.
"Like any season, I'm not going to say it's all going swimmingly and we'd like to have a few more wins as a nation as a whole, for sure, but I don't see [the negativity]," he said
"I've been involved in teams that have gone on runs and their position at the midway or halfway through the year doesn't even look like what it finishes up with.
"Sometimes when you lose that's part of the game.
"You've got to lose and go, ‘I'm ready for the next one, bring it on, let's play'. People might consider me naive, I don't know if that's the attitude, but for me that's the oldest school value of rugby.
Australia's great white hope in the Brumbies has fallen short of all but one New Zealand opponent so far this season but Cheika said there was plenty more Super Rugby to play out for every team.
"A couple of losses [are] not going to sway me from believing in the team," he said.
"The position on the table counts at the end for those teams and the form of those players will also decide what they do going forward.
"There's always another game the next week to show what they've got."
For the first time since graduating to the professional ranks, Cheika finds himself an onlooker at Super Rugby time, having left the Waratahs coaching gig, and is focused on individuals rather than teams.
"I suppose for me more particularly, it's just looking at individual player form and trying to get my head around who are going to be the best combinations to pick, "he said.
"Who's playing well, who are the players to give opportunities to that I think will add something to the team and also prepare for what I think in that first week we come together at the end of May, how the training should look.
"[It'll be about] where they're at, where the lads are at physically and we're not going to change too much about the way we play, it's not going to be a whole heap different."
Source: rugby.com.au
