By his own admission, Chris Bennett's tabbouleh won't win many awards and his Dabkeh could do with some work.
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"I've got zero Lebanese heritage in me," he laughs.
But his time as a Cedar will always mean there's a little bit of Beirut close to Mr Bennett's heart.
Rubbing shoulders with NRL stars Mitch Moses and Adam Doueihi, as well as past premiership winners Robbie Farah and Matt King, and cross-code coaching genius Michael Cheika, Mr Bennett was part of the Lebanon Rugby League World Cup squad that toured England for over a month.
Mr Bennett, who hails from Orange, was essentially an extra on Cheika's small coaching staff of half-a-dozen.
"Cheik wanted an extra set of hands and I said 'sign me up'," Mr Bennett said.
Grabbing his chance as a Cedar
Getting his foot in the door with the Lebanon camp via his work with the Sydney Roosters and link with assistant coach Matt King, Mr Bennett jumped at the chance to tour England after the possibility of joining the Cedars was floated during a night out in Melbourne.
![Chris Bennett (right) was on hand for the Lebanon Cedars during the Rugby League World Cup, helping head coach Michael Cheika (left). Picture supplied Chris Bennett (right) was on hand for the Lebanon Cedars during the Rugby League World Cup, helping head coach Michael Cheika (left). Picture supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/GHcbaSNijNeVS4SULWDX8n/f1181dbb-4698-4d90-b7f5-ce1adf192e5b.jpg/r0_478_2500_1884_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
He took on the role of gear steward for the Lebanese team, while also handling some of the media delegations during what was a "full on five weeks" involved in the Rugby League World Cup.
"I'm still coming down from it," Mr Bennett said.
"Being with a squad and going full-on for five weeks, doing whatever we needed to do to get the wins ... my heads still spinning.
"It was an unreal experience. The experience of a lifetime, you rarely get those opportunities."
Lebanon turns heads on the field
He also flew the drone at training so Cheika could analyse his Cedars during what many would deem a hugely successful cup campaign for the Lebanese team.
![Chris Bennett was on hand for the Lebanon Cedars during the Rugby League World Cup. Picture supplied Chris Bennett was on hand for the Lebanon Cedars during the Rugby League World Cup. Picture supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/GHcbaSNijNeVS4SULWDX8n/713b1c04-291e-4d4e-b3b6-8cdd93ca33a3.jpg/r0_150_2500_1556_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The Cedars opened their campaign with a 34-12 loss against the then number one ranked side in the world in New Zealand.
Facing sudden death from there on to progress out of the pool stage, the Cedars beat Ireland 32-14 in a crucial game before dismantling Jamaica 74-12 to book a quarter-final date with Australia.
Up against the odds, the Cedars lost 48-4 against the Kangaroos in the round of eight stage. The James Tedesco-inspired Australian side would eventually go on to be crowned world champions.
Mr Bennett said the Lebanese boys knew it was going to be a hard task against the Kiwis and Australians, but on both occasions came from the field "proud" of their performance.
"But the Ireland game, that was do-or-die," he said.
"We were expected to beat Jamaica, so the pivotal game we had to win was against Ireland, and we won that so that was epic for us."
The boys knew we had nothing to lose. Cheik got them up for it, he's great at that 'us against the world' mentality.
- Chris Bennett on Michael Cheika
He said the quarter-final experience was something he and the Lebanese boys won't forget in a hurry.
"The boys knew we had nothing to lose. Cheik got them up for it, he's great at that 'us against the world' mentality," Mr Bennett said.
"Having played TrellMit (Latrell Mitchell) and (Joseph) Manu, and seeing what it takes to play NRL and see the next level, there's a lot of their motivation in our squad."
Rubbing shoulders with legends
Mr Bennett said having the likes of Matt King, Robbie Farah and head coach Michael Cheika as part of the Cedars for the world cup made the tour great.
"Robbie is a professional NRL guy; knows his footy and knows how a tour works. And with such a young group, it was such a good mix. The whole squad was cool because they were so young. Moses, Doueihi, they get it ... but the other guys were all starry eyed. And that made it great. It was an exciting atmosphere," he said.
![Chris Bennett was on hand for the Lebanon Cedars during the Rugby League World Cup. Picture supplied Chris Bennett was on hand for the Lebanon Cedars during the Rugby League World Cup. Picture supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/GHcbaSNijNeVS4SULWDX8n/06792f31-5934-4aa5-b035-871e19924bc4.jpg/r0_338_6343_3904_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
But it was 'Cheik' that impressed the most.
The ex-Wallaby head coach is also the coach for the Argentina Pumas, so he, incredibly, juggled two international coaching roles at the same time.
A joint Cedars-Pumas dinner was well publicised while both were based in Manchester.
"He's super impressive. I've learned a lot from him," Mr Bennett said of his time alongside Cheika.
"He's a quick decision maker, and he makes good decisions, he just gets it.
"And good at time management and filling in his day. He doesn't have a spare 10 minutes. He's an impressive dude to watch.
"He gets league, but it's the idea and principles of footy he understands to a tee. It's similar across both games. The overarching vibe of attacking the whole tournament stems from Chieka."
Plenty to crow about
Mr Bennett is in his fifth year at the Sydney Roosters.
And he says the NRL's glamour club just "keeps getting better and better".
He loves working alongside two of the game's biggest personalities - Trent Robinson and Nick Politis.
"It's inspiring to be around those people, the Trents and Nicks, dudes that are successful and being around it," he said.
"It rubs off on you. How to work, why you work and what to work towards. We're one big family, and all have the same goal."
He ran into plenty of his Roosters colleagues while over in England as well.
"I bumped into Gus (Crichton) on the street, and we had an opposed session with France so saw Robbo there," Mr Bennett said.
"And we trained against Samoa, too, so guys like Suaalii."
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