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Vern Cotter granted early release from Montpellier

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Vern Cotter’s adventure at Montpellier has finished early as the French club have granted his early release from his role as director of rugby. 

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The ex-Scotland boss had known he was on his way out at the end of the season and had succeeded in getting the go-ahead to take over John McKee as Fiji coach.

However, rather than wait until the end of the Top 14 season to make the change, Montpellier have allowed Cotter to finish three months earlier than planned and he will be replaced by Philippe Saint-Andre, the former France coach. 

Having previously coached Clermont to Top 14 glory, Cotter arrived back in the French league in 2017 and he finished his first season by guiding Montpellier to the final at Stade de France. 

Following an amicable agreement negotiated with Mohed Altrad, Cotter is now clear to start preparing to lead Fiji whose first match under their new coach all be a July 4 meeting with Pacific Islands rivals Tonga.

WATCH: RugbyPass go behind the scenes at Montpellier to document the life and time of Fijian legend Nemani Nadolo 

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AM 7 minutes ago
'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

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