Michael Cheika remains the No. 1 candidate for the Wallabies coaching job © Getty Images

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Michael Cheika remains the Australian Rugby Union's prime target to replace Ewen McKenzie, but it will have to be on his terms. This includes allowing him to continue coaching the Waratahs next year.

If the Cheika deal falls through, leading the list of interim coaches to take the Wallabies away on their end-of-season European tour this week is the Melbourne Rebels Tony McGahan. Springbok World Cup winning coach Jake White remains a Plan B option.

Sources close to Cheika confirmed over the weekend that the 2014 Super Rugby title winning coach does not want to work with the body's chief executive officer Bill Pulver. Several members of the ARU board also underwhelm Cheika. So for Cheika to take the job, major changes will have to be made at ARU administration level.

Apart from questioning Pulver's sporting administerial skills, Cheika is concerned that while he has been in charge at the ARU, Robbie Deans was dumped as coach, and McKenzie forced out. Cheika is well aware that ARU officials, including Pulver, were sounding out other candidates, including Jake White and McKenzie, well before Deans was sacked as Wallabies coach last year. Cheika does not want to work with officials who are unable to show complete trust in him, or may betray him. He also had no interest in taking over a coaching position currently held by someone else.

Other ARU officials are aware of Cheika's 'problem' with Pulver. A high ranking ARU source said last night: "Michael has made it known he won't work with the (ARU) CEO."

ESPNscrum has been told that after McKenzie informed the ARU on Saturday morning that he would quit following that night's Test match, Pulver repeatedly attempted to telephone Cheika, leaving a string of messages. When Cheika returned the call, Pulver did not answer.

Instead an intermediary, a high-ranking Waratahs official, has been approached by the ARU to broker a deal with Cheika. It is understood that the group involved in the Cheika approach could include Waratahs chairman Roger Davis.

The ARU have set their sights on former Wallabies coaching co-ordinator Tony MCGahan © Getty Images

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For Cheika to take the Wallabies away on the end-of-season tour his terms revolve around the ARU allowing him to also coach the Waratahs next year. Cheika wants to fulfill his three-year Waratahs contract, which has one more season to run. Throughout his career, Cheika has been a stickler in completing coaching contracts.

Cheika, a provocative and sometimes volatile character, has also made it known that if he is takes over the Wallabies he wants a five-year ARU contract, which would embrace next year's World Cup, and the following tournament in 2019.

In spite of the endless ARU denials, they have been interested in Cheika for a long while. In early July, when Cheika was contemplating leaving the Waratahs because of alluring overseas offers, including from Argentina and Toulon in France, an ARU official during a telephone conference which involved numerous other officials, basically promised him the Test position. Cheika was told by the ARU official that: "You're the next Wallabies coach, you know that."

Also involved in the phone conference were Waratahs officials and a former Australian Test captain.

Last week, Pulver was in contact with Cheika to discuss the Kurtley Beale issue, where the Waratahs coach stressed to the ARU CEO of the importance of the Test utility remaining in the rugby ranks. It is not known whether Wallabies assurances towards Cheika were given during that conversation.

While White, who has also been sounded out, is an alternative if Cheika remains 'hard to get', McGahan is high up on the list of potential Wallabies interim coaches. McGahan, an aggressive, sometimes emotional character who was an assistant coach to Deans, would be a far cheaper option.

Also in McGahan's advantage is that Rob Clarke, the chief executive officer at the Rebels, recently joined the ARU. The ARU have in recent months been heavily involved in the financing of the cash-strapped Rebels.

Another potential candidate as an interim coach is Brumbies Stephen Larkham. Larkham is highly respected by the Brumbies players, and he could work as a peacemaker at a time when Australian Rugby is in deep turmoil.

Larkham has been touted as a Wallaby assistant coach along with Western Force and former Waratahs coach Michael Foley.

A left-field candidate is Scotland coach Scott Johnson.

Ewen McKenzie was close to tears as he addressed the media © Getty Images

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