Rugby: Auckland NPC search ends

By Wynne Gray

Auckland's worldwide search for their latest NPC rugby coach ended three metres down the corridor at Eden Park yesterday.

And unlike the public axing of Jed Rowlands, the appointment of Wayne Pivac was announced on the fax machine.

Pivac has been upgraded to head coach and will be assisted by former All Black Grant Fox, who will have a fulltime position at the union.

Fox confirmed that he would stop his commentating work with TVNZ in late July, and while staying as managing director of Carnegie Sports International NZ Ltd, would delegate all his daily project work.

The curious beast which has been Auckland rugby for the last year delivered more intrigue yesterday, with Pivac, win-less in the first division last year with Northland, replacing Rowlands, whose Taranaki side made the final four.

Rowlands had piggybacked into the NPC job after his selection as the Blues Super 12 coach. He was to succeed Maurice Trapp as NPC coach but lost that portfolio when the Blues' campaign faltered and then crashed.

A number of prominent names were suggested as a replacement and ARU chief executive Geoff Hipkins indicated at Rowlands' sacking that there would be a global headhunting operation.

That search ended yesterday in the office next to Hipkins' at Eden Park when Pivac, a former Auckland age-group player and Colts representative in 1983, was officially made coach.

Rather than consider the job as a poisoned chalice, Pivac said he was enormously excited by the challenge and with Fox, was keen to reinstall Auckland as a dominant force in New Zealand rugby.

The previous night he had taken an Auckland Development XV to Whangarei and in atrocious conditions lost 21-23 to his old Northland union.

"That game was very much about looking at some of the young talent and there is a lot of light at the end of the tunnel in developing those sorts of players. We were missing about 18 of our top players too," he said.

Pivac and Fox have two months before the start of the NPC, a campaign which starts with Pivac looking anxiously at the date, Friday, August 13, against Wellington.

For Pivac, the Auckland job comes after 25 games as a loose forward for North Harbour and as he moves into his 10th season of coaching.

After working with the Takapuna under-21 club side he coached the seniors for four seasons, two years with North Harbour Second XV and then Northland for two seasons.

His 1997 Northland side won every NPC match and promotion to division one, but the 1998 model lost every game.

A policeman for nearly 15 years, and then involved in mediation work with the Auckland City Council, Pivac was employed by the ARU last year to identify and contract talented players.

The 36-year-old had been identified by former coach Graham Henry as a future Auckland coach.

Former Waikato coach John Boe was a contender for the job, but his commitments to New Zealand A and the national under-19 side, the ARU's preference to make the appointment long-term and Boe's wish to shoot for the Super 12, meant his NPC life would have been limited to just this season.

"The board wanted to make a long-term appointment," Hipkins said.

Fox said coaching was a career path he wanted and he was passionate about Auckland rugby.