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Moana Pasifika head coach Aaron Mauger to step down

21 May 2023

(Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)

Moana Pasifika head coach Aaron Mauger will step down at the end of the 2023 Super Rugby Pacific season, citing a desire to prioritize his family.

The decision has been accepted by the Board, which expressed respect for Mauger’s choice.

During his tenure, Mauger has expressed his deep appreciation for the team, describing it as a privilege to be part of the Moana Pasifika journey and the broader Pasifika community.

Despite facing challenging conditions, he has dedicated himself wholeheartedly to the cause. However, he believes it is now time to return home and focus on his wife and four children.

“I love this team immensely and it has been an absolute privilege to be a part of this special journey for Moana Pasifika and broader movement for the Pasifika community,” a statement read.

“I have given everything for the cause in testing conditions but it’s now time for me to return home to my family and give my best back to Amy and my four beautiful children.”

Moana Pasifika’s chair, La’auli Savae Sir Michael Jones, on behalf of the Board, thanked Mauger for his contributions as head coach.

He commended Mauger for his work in establishing the rugby management team and developing a roster of mostly inexperienced players.

Despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and storm weeks last year, as well as a tough 2023 season, Mauger’s unwavering professionalism in steering Moana Pasifika has been commendable.

Jones also recognized Mauger’s role in nurturing and developing Pasifika players, noting the growth and progress witnessed under his leadership.

He highlighted that 27 Moana Pasifika players went on to represent their Pacific home nations, with 13 in the ‘Ikale Tahi and 14 in Manu Samoa squads during the Pacific Nations Cup in 2022.

Moana Pasifika will now embark on the search for a new head coach to lead the team into the future.

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Comments on RugbyPass

PT 23 minutes ago

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The truth can sometimes sting a bit, so I fully understand your delusional take on it. Also, I'm sure you'd be aware of the list of opposition players Irish players have injured with this? To be clear, I don't believe the Irish players are trying to intentionally injure opposition players, certainly not. But they are reckless in a lot of their ‘clearing out’ maneuvers and tactics, therefore causing injuries to opposition players. I suppose they don't do it at training so they don't injure each other, but it really does appear to be repetitive aspect of their play.

So, why don't you get some batteries for your noddy train & go play for a while.

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BH 41 minutes ago

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Your hatred for ALB is borderline trolling at this point. He’s proven himself at test level for years.

Ennor is done and dusted. Too injury prone for years and years. Proctor is a better choice.

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BH 46 minutes ago

'There's a lot of rugby knowledge': David Havili's reasoning behind in-form backline

Tele’a scored some wonderful tries on the end of year tour against England and Italy and played well against Ireland.

Reece is the liability at test level - he was shown up big time against France.

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PS 1 hour ago

Antoine Dupont undergoes surgery on injured knee ahead of long absence

What you're asking for is an explanation for why the officials and citing officials don't make the same judgements on specific incidents as you do. What explanation can be given other than something along the lines of “the incident wasn't judged to have met the criteria for an illegal tackle”? What other explanation do you expect? Refs now give explanations for why an incident is judged to be illegal and why an illegal action may result in a card. If a card, or a penalty is not awarded. The only explanation possible is that there's no evidence of foul play. A coaching team can (and often do) seek clarity from the officials and WR on specific incidents in a game and they are free to share the outcome of such questions with fans. You should turn to the French coaching team for answers. The French coaching team should have raised any concerns in the appropriate channels instead of publicly accusing players of intentionally trying to injure another player. This incident has left a very sour taste and created a lot of bad blod

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JH 1 hour ago

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Given he’s from Christchurch, the Crusaders are probably kicking themselves a bit.

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JH 1 hour ago

Sky Sports commentator on why Wallabies players are outplaying All Blacks counterparts

““Rieko Ioane has struggled to find form in Super Rugby. We know what he can do at Test level, on the wing I’ll add that”

Exactly, and that was years ago now. Rieko is a liability with a seriously limited skillset, especially for a 13. Frankly, every opponent is outplaying him. He’ll still make the ABs though, every player over 50 caps will, because we don’t drop ‘leadership group’ players apparently.

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PS 1 hour ago

Antoine Dupont undergoes surgery on injured knee ahead of long absence

I agree with your last sentence. In addition, I would like to add that I also wish you a speedy recovery from whatever made you write the first two sentences.

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Poorfour 1 hour ago

Antoine Dupont undergoes surgery on injured knee ahead of long absence

I’m not looking for special treatment for anybody. If anything, I’m looking to dispel the perception that some teams are treated more leniently than others.

For instance, compare the tackle that ultimately earned Owen Farrell from the RWC warm ups with the one that only earned Eben Etzebeth a YC from head contact with Atonio in the QF. I have yet to see any reasonable justification for why two near-identical incidents (with Farrell’s if anything having the greater mitigation) produced totally different judgements.

Rugby has a long and inglorious history of dismissing these incidents without providing any explanation - remember the spear tackle on BOD on the 2005 Lions tour?

If Beirne wasn’t reckless, then he and Ireland should have nothing to fear, but the game benefits from having a clear explanation of why.

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Chiefs Mana 1 hour ago

Sky Sports commentator on why Wallabies players are outplaying All Blacks counterparts

She’s talking more about individuals, i couldn’t agree more with you though from a team perspective.

Aussies also have the motivation of a Lions series to fuel them through and a lot of wide open spaces in the WB team.

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RedWarriors 3 hours ago

'Ulster, though no one wants to admit it, isn't much more than a development province right now.'

“There has been a university brain drain for many decades (at least since the 90s) so I'm not sure if overly relevant. Most talented youth players are identified at school and then provided a development contract with Ulster which requires them to stay in Ireland. I don't know of any young players who left to go to university and then were awarded professional rugby contacts to an English/Scottish team.”

Ok thanks, that clears that up.

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RedWarriors 3 hours ago

'Ulster, though no one wants to admit it, isn't much more than a development province right now.'

“I would also be surprised if there are many kids going “across the water” to schools. It is a long time since I taught and coached rugby in Ulster, but I am still in contact with family and lads I coached…have not heard any of that mentioned.

What I have heard is that a significant number now to to Uni. outside Ireland. In my day it was Queen’s or Trinity, a few to UCD.”

Apologies, you are correct, I was thinking about Universities! I had heard that amore students were being educated outside of Ireland but mixed that up with fee paying schools. Would this affect potential rugby careers or would promising rugby players tend to stay in Ireland?

Wider question but I’ve often taught sevens was the way to break kids more generally into rugby. Say for example, Ireland had a successful 2023 RWC. Volume of rugby playing population could be quickly expanded via sevens then building pathways for promising looking 15s players etc.

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RedWarriors 3 hours ago

'Ulster, though no one wants to admit it, isn't much more than a development province right now.'

Another sign in Munster was Castletroy winning Junior and Senior Cups in same year maybe 15 years ago. Castletroy is a public schools (not fee paying) and it was a double first for a non Cork/Limerick private school or somewhere like Rockwell (where my Dad went).

He won the Senior Munster Cup when he was there. As a snapshot at what it was like in the 50s: he claimed a Cork team used to win most years then (Presentation College I think) as a victory celebration they used to kick the Cup down St Patricks hill (notoriously steep hill in Cork City Centre). The year Rockwell run, Presentation had paper marche-ed the cup back together from the previous years kick down St Patricks Hill. They assumed their guy would be the guy lifting the cup and he knew to be careful. With the shock Rockwell victory my Dad got to lift the cup and there was no gentleness only ecstacy. Unfortunately, he lifted so hard the two lugs detached and he hoisted the lugs in the air with the cup staying put. Presentation got the last laugh there!

Not sure if prez still kick it down Patricks Hill, maybe O’Gara would know!

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Js 3 hours ago

Sky Sports commentator on why Wallabies players are outplaying All Blacks counterparts

Slow and steady builds for sustainability. Why burn out too soon? I agree with Wilson that Aussie players are trying to prove a point but our ABs don’t need to burn themselves out within the early stages.

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RedWarriors 4 hours ago

'Ulster, though no one wants to admit it, isn't much more than a development province right now.'

Connaught has a population of 0.5 million and 1/14th of Ireland’s total population. They are building an exciting, strong, young team. We have no issues. What exactly is Munster’s issue? Is it injury or is something else? As I suggested a tweak to the centralized contracts to rebalance funding might help. As for Ulster, the playing pool needs to be expanded. Leinster has 3 million people, Ulster has 2.25 million but there is no comparison to the amount of players, systems and the Leinster academy. This is not explained by IRFU favouring Leinster players.

Leinster supply a lot of Ulster players as you imply and were it not for that Ulster would Ulster be in worse straits?

There is no magic wand here. I will put it plainly, Ulster needs to push rugby out beyond the traditional few schools that play. It probably needs the IRFUs help with that potentially with an Ireland wide plan to develop the sport.

Others have noted that an infusion of quality coaches would go a long way.

Perhaps the IRFU needs to look at helping the other provinces develop and listen more to their needs.

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RedWarriors 4 hours ago

Antoine Dupont undergoes surgery on injured knee ahead of long absence

Rugby incident, happens scores of times in a game. Dupont wasn’t even hit with much force, Beirne just clears him and force is added from behind from Furlong.

We can’t have special treatment for France just because their star is the one who gets unlucky.

There is already a lack of clarity around actual Written decisions and how they differ from bans.

For example, Mauvaka the official written decision states Mauvaka to have made a ‘reckless’, ‘deliberate’, shot ‘to the head’ of a ‘player in a vulnerable position’ on the ground. That’s a high level entry ban of 10 weeks. However, the press release did not show ‘reckless’ or ‘vulnerable player’ ticked alloweing Mauvaka to enter at the 6 match mid range.

No. France have been abusing the system for years, recently spreading disinformation about the Ringrose ban in order to undermine confidence in the process.