Jason Long as a Hawke's Bay Magpie with the Ranfurly Shield in 2021 - 12 months earlier he had also won the Maddison Trophy final with Hastings Rugby and Sports, which he will coach this season. Photo / NZME
Jason Long as a Hawke's Bay Magpie with the Ranfurly Shield in 2021 - 12 months earlier he had also won the Maddison Trophy final with Hastings Rugby and Sports, which he will coach this season. Photo / NZME
Coaches will be a focus of the early days of a new premier club rugby season which starts in Hawke’s Bay tomorrow.
The situation highlights the emergence of recent and even current players on the brains trust across the teams chasing Nash Cup and Maddison Trophy honours in 2023.
Among them are three front-row specialists who have each played for the Hawke’s Bay Magpies and were still playing representative or top-level club rugby last year.
They include Jason Long, who late last year announced retirement from rugby, after appearing in 62 matches for the Magpies, and speedway racing. Long is a former 2019 national superstocks title holder.
Long, aged just 30 and employed as community partnerships manager with the Hawke’s Bay Rugby Union, is making a seamless transition to the role of coach at Hastings Rugby and Sports.
Asked about coaching ambitions, he said: “It’s not something I would necessarily have thought of, but I do like coaching”.
He and Sione Herrington-Kite seem one of the few coaching teams that are happy with numbers, having built on a five-week platform of late-2022 touch football and other get-togethers.
They recently took 28 players to Taupo for the Spillane Cup North Island Marist tournament, in which they were beaten by Napier Old Boys Marist, and then had a one-point win over Wellington’s Marist St Pats.
Namatahi Waa takes charge at Taradale, the club he captained to a Nash Cup-Maddison Trophy double in 2021.
At the age of 32, Waa has played three Super Rugby matches for the Blues and 60 other matches for Northland, Hawke’s Bay and, last year, American Major League Rugby side Austin Gilgronis.
Jorian Tangaere, 33, will be coaching Clive, for which he played more than 100 premier games.
Last October, Tangaere scored a title-clinching Heartland Championship Lochore Cup final try for East Coast, while playing on the blindside flank.
The youngest of the new coaching crop is 27-year-old Sam McNicol, the new head coach at Waipukurau-based Central.
In an injury-plagued 2015-2020 representative career, McNicol appeared in 19 Super Rugby games for the Chiefs and one for the Hurricanes, but just 12 NPC games in total for Hawke’s Bay and Wellington.
Others with senior representative rugby playing credentials are Ellery Wilson, with 29 matches for the Magpies in 2014-2017. Wilson is in his third season as Head Coach at Napier Old Boys Marist.
New Napier Pirate coach Aaron Good had 47 first-class games for Poverty Bay and Manawatu in 2004-2009, and Richard Kinnear, in his third year as Havelock North coach, played 14 matches for Hawke’s Bay in 1999-2002.
Sheridan Rangihuna at halfback for Napier Tech in a Nash Cup match last year against Taradale. Tech won the Cup, but was beaten by Taradale in the Maddison Trophy final. Rangihuna will be on the Tech coaching team this year. Photo / NZME
Henare Harris coaches Tamatea, and Jared Stephenson coaches Dannevirke side Aotea.
Both have played as recently as last season, while Kerry Lewis is back at the helm at Napier Technical, with a coaching team including Sheridan Rangihuna.
Rangihuna was the leading scorer last year as Tech won the Nash Cup and went through the season unbeaten until the Maddison Trophy final.
At MAC, Anthony Morley continues his partnership with former All Blacks captain Taine Randell.
MAC will also have former All Black and rugby league professional Craig Innes, who now has a home in Hawke’s Bay, checking-in on the backs.
Havelock North’s Kinnear says the coaching trend, away from the days of coaches who’d spent many years coaching through the grades, is partly explained by the need for coaches to be up with the play on rules and interpretations.
The premier grade season comprises an 11-team, 11-round competition for the Nash Cup, with the Top 6 then playing the Maddison Trophy championship.
Taradale, favourites by virtue of dual trophy wins in 2021 and last year’s retention of the Maddison Trophy, has the opening day bye.
With Nick Hogan refereeing the Women’s Super Rugby Aupiki final and fellow officials Dan Waenga, Jono Brennan and Stu Catley also away on Super Rugby or Under 20 tournament appointments, the refereeing resources are already stretched.
A referee and two associates (touch judges) are needed for each Nash Cup match.
Hawke’s Bay Rugby Union referee manager Keith Groube said the “pressure” is already on, and will increase as other grades and competitions kick-in across clubs and schools rugby.
