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Breaking: Former Fiji boss Simon Raiwalui confirms his next move

(Photo by Adam Pretty/World Rugby via Getty Images)

Ex-Fiji head coach Simon Raiwalui has revealed his new post-Rugby World Cup role. The 49-year-old captured the imagination when guiding the Pacific Islanders to the quarter-finals in France, their first appearance at that stage of the tournament since 2007.

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Having only become head coach last February after the sudden exit of Vern Cotter, Raiwalui worked wonders in his short time in charge of the team.

However, he stated in October shortly after the defeat to England in Marseille that he wasn’t looking to continue in the job that was last week given on an interim basis to Senirusi Seruvakula, one of Raiwalui’s assistants at the finals.

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France 2023 won’t be the last we will see of the Raiwalui’s influence at the World Cup, though, as he has now decided to join World Rugby as their high performance pathways and player development manager ahead of the expansion of the women’s World Cup from 12 to 16 teams in 2025 and the increase in the men’s tournament in 2027 from 20 to 24 teams.

A statement read: “World Rugby have appointed Simon Raiwalui in a key role to support its core mission of increasing the competitiveness of international rugby as the sport prepares for a new era of opportunity and growth.

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“With expanded men’s and women’s Rugby World Cups the cornerstones of a reimagined global rugby calendar from 2025, which features USA’s groundbreaking hosting of the men’s and women’s editions in 2031 and 2033 respectively, Raiwalui joins the governing body at an exciting and pivotal time.

“Renowned for his passion for rugby across the globe and ability to build winning player development and pathway programmes, Raiwalui joins World Rugby’s competitions and performance function.

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“In line with the federation’s central mission of growing the global game, he will support director of high performance Peter Horne to assist performance and emerging unions identify, develop and fast track player development initiatives as well as support other HP rugby projects.

“Raiwalui joins World Rugby having completed his contract as Flying Fijians head coach, and formerly general manager of high performance for the Fiji Rugby Union, after a highly successful period on and off the field across the men’s and women’s national team and pathway programmes.

“The former Fiji, Sale, Newport, Saracens and Racing 92 second row’s high performance credentials are impressive, having coached Fiji’s men to a first Rugby World Cup quarter-final in 16 years at France 2023, been integral in the establishment of the Fijian Drua Super Rugby Pacific franchise and assisted Fijiana to their first women’s Rugby World Cup in 2022.”

Raiwalui said: “World Rugby are passionate about growing our sport, increasing opportunity and certainty for more unions to breakthrough. Underpinning all of this is player and competition pathways, something that I am passionate about and I look forward to contributing to what promises to be an exciting and challenging journey, ultimately increasing the competitiveness and impact of international rugby.”

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World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin added: “Simon joins the team at an exciting and pivotal time for the game with expanded men’s and women’s Rugby World Cups the pinnacle of major calendar reform, providing unprecedented certainty and opportunity for performance nations.

“Simon is an experienced and successful operator who is able to understand how to extract the best from teams. His skill set will complement the wealth of experience and talent that we have within our high performance unit, working with Peter Horne and the wider team to implement strategies that add depth to the competitiveness of the international game.”

Director of high performance Horne said: “We have traditionally played a supporting role, getting teams who have qualified for a Rugby World Cup ready for the tournament. However, calendar certainty gives us an exciting new mandate to work with teams over a longer period of time to prepare them for not just World Cups, but new competition structures.

“With all his experience, his understanding of the needs of unions and the high-performance landscape for performance unions, Simon is perfectly placed to help us drive forward in partnership with unions to build a more competitive game on the road to Rugby World Cups in the USA. We are excited to be working with him.”

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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