Tabai Matson: Harlequins appoint New Zealand Under-20s head coach to lead coaching team
- Published
Tabai Matson was capped internationally by both New Zealand and Fiji as a player
Premiership champions Harlequins have appointed former All Blacks centre Tabai Matson to lead their coaching team next season.
The 48-year-old will join the club later this month after his contract as head coach of New Zealand Under-20s comes to an end.
He will work as senior coach leading the club's team of specialist coaches.
Quins won the title last weekend under general manager Billy Millard after Paul Gustard left the club in January.
Matson was head coach under Todd Blackadder at Bath for the 2016-17 season before returning to New Zealand for family reasons.
He has previously had assistant coaching roles at New Zealand Super Rugby sides the Chiefs and Crusaders and won two caps for New Zealand in 1999.
"I'm not coming to reinvent the wheel," Matson, who will lead the current coaching group of attack and backs coach Nick Evans, scrum coach Adam Jones, lineout and defence coach Jerry Flannery and skills and kicking coach Charlie Mulchrone, told the Harlequins website., external
"This is a special team with some fantastic people and a great history. I'm incredibly excited to add to what this talented coaching team already has and keep pushing this side to new heights.
"Having spoken to Laurie (Dalrymple, Harlequins chief executive), Billy, as well as the existing coaches, I know we are united in the belief that this is only the beginning for Harlequins. I strongly believe that staying true to our identity - the Quins DNA is critical to how we will reach our goals."
'Tabai was the outstanding candidate'
Tabai Matson helped Bath to a fifth-place Premiership finish in 2017 as head coach under former director of rugby Todd Blackadder (left)
Quins won a dramatic Premiership final against Exeter last Saturday despite not having a head coach - the side thrived after Gustard left the club, winning 11 league games out of the next 16 following his departure to seal a top-four place.
They then competed the biggest comeback in Premiership history to win at top-of-the-table Bristol Bears in the semi-finals, before beating the Chiefs at Twickenham.
But prior to the final Millard, who will revert to his role overseeing rugby operations for the whole club, including their Premier 15s-winning women's side and academy, said they would bring in a coach to oversee the men's side.
"We identified in the middle of last season that we were in need of extra resources in the coaching department, and left no stone unturned in the process of identifying the right person to fill that role. Tabai was the outstanding candidate," Millard said.
"Tabai has experienced some high performing rugby environments both as player and coach and will add value to the fantastic coaching team we have here at The Stoop.
"He demonstrated that he understands what it takes to create and maintain a winning culture and how our identity is central to this."
An exciting squad to take over
Marcus Smith and Louis Lynagh are two of the exciting young players Matson will coach at Harlequins
Matson inherits a title-winning squad sprinkled with an exciting mix of youth and experience.
Led by the likes of established England players such as scrum-half Danny Care and prop Joe Marler, Harlequins' youngsters impressed as they beat reigning champions Exeter to win the title.
Fly-half Marcus Smith, 22, led the Premiership in points last season and was influential both with ball in hand and from the tee at Twickenham, and is set to win his first England cap this Saturday against the United States.
Louis Lynagh, the 20-year-old son of former Australia captain Michael, stole the show at Twickenham with two late tries to secure the 40-38 win over the Chiefs, while in full-back Tyrone Green they have a talented heir to the departing Mike Brown.
Number eight Alex Dombrandt has proved to be a dominant ball-carrier and has earned a call-up for England, while in centre Joe Marchant, Matson has an up-and-coming England back capable of powerful and dynamic breaks.