Michael Cheika says he'll always be "proud" of his time as Wallabies coach despite feeling unsatisfied without a World Cup or Bledisloe Cup series win in his tenure.
Cheika resigned as Wallabies coach after Australia's World Cup quarter-final loss to England last October, and is now working as an assistant at NRL club the Roosters.
The former Waaratahs coach replaced Ewen McKenzie as Wallabies coach at the tail end of 2014 and though he lead the team to an unlikely World Cup final in his first season, the following four years yielded lean results.
Cheika said he was left feeling dissatisfied at being unable to take a major trophy in his time in charge.
'Was I Satisfied in the end? No, because I wanted to win the Bledisloe, win the World Cup and I wasn't able to do that and that hurts me personally because I really valued the supporter on the street and that's what they want," he told FOX League
Cheika said he felt that external circumstances in a tumultuous period in Australian rugby hurt the Wallabies' results.
"Honoured, grateful for a kid like me to have the opportunity to coach the Wallabies," he said.
"I've always been an outsider in rugby, outside the establishment so to get that opportunity and, considering the circumstances we had going on in Australian rugby the last five years, we always represented Australian rugby with maximum courage," he said.
"Sometimes we weren't our best, sometimes we had terrible halves and had to make comebacks and we had some great wins as well, even in '19 we had a great win over New Zealand in Perth.
"Consistency was lacking but...at the end of the day the Wallabies are a result of our preparations in Super Rugby and they've been difficult, because we've had a lot going on whether it was from Perth (the axing of the Western Force) on the outside and then players going overseas etc, the format of the competition.
"When the guys got together they played hard for Australia every single time and I'm the first one to say that's not perfect but I'll always be proud of being a part of that and being a part of some of those great wins but also being there for some of the losses and being able to get the team back up."
