Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Chiefs announce Warren Gatland's backroom staff

Warren Gatland. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

It remains to be seen who will overtake Warren Gatland as Chiefs head coach during his time as British and Irish Lions boss during their 2021 tour of South Africa, but the Hamilton franchise now has some solidity moving into next season after confirming their backroom staff for 2020.

ADVERTISEMENT

Just one new face will be present in the seven-man coaching panel headed by Gatland, with ex-Chiefs first-five and New Zealand U20 assistant coach David Hill joining the team as an assistant.

He will work alongside the likes of forwards coach Neil Barnes, defence coach Tabai Matson, attack coach Roger Randle, scrum coach Nick White, and resource coach Andrew Strawbridge, who will all stay on with the club from last season.

Their retentions marks a form of continuity for the Chiefs following their decision to release former head coach Colin Cooper earlier this year to make way for Gatland, who was named head coach of the two-time Super Rugby champions in July.

That deal is set to last four years until the end of the 2023 campaign, and allows Gatland to take a season-long sabbatical in two years’ time to lead the Lions to the Republic after successful tours to Australia in 2013 and New Zealand in 2017.

No official word has confirmed whether any of the six assistants enlisted for the upcoming season will fill the void left by Gatland in 2021, although Chiefs chief executive Michael Collins could reveal more details about the situation in a press conference on Friday morning.

In a statement released by the Chiefs, Gatland said he was happy to have finalised his coaching team.

ADVERTISEMENT

“I’m pleased with the coaching group that has been assembled to lead the Chiefs in 2020,” the 56-year-old said.

“There is an abundance of experience among these men and I trust this will provide us with a solid platform we can build on to deliver a successful campaign for the club.”

“It is a great to have David join the fold this season. He has an impressive coaching resume to date; his technical knowledge of the game is second to none. We know he already has a great rapport with a number of our squad already and we trust in his role he will continue to make a positive impact.”

 

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

F
Flankly 2 hours ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Mick Cleary: 'Borthwick needs to have faith in Marcus Smith' Mick Cleary: 'Borthwick needs to have faith in Marcus Smith'
Search