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Ex-All Blacks and Wallabies coach named Fijian Drua head coach

(Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Former All Blacks and Wallabies skills coach Mick Byrne has been unveiled as head coach of the Fijian Drua for their inaugural season in Super Rugby Pacific.

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Byrne was revealed as the Drua’s new head coach on a Fiji Rugby press conference on Friday, with the 62-year-old signing a two-year deal with the expansion franchise.

The Drua’s acquisition of Byrne is a significant coup given his experience not only as a professional rugby coach, but also as a player in the Victorian Football League, now known as the AFL, between 1977 and 1989.

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A rangy ruckman for Melbourne, Hawthorn and the Sydney Swans, Bryne applied his knowledge of kicking as an Australian footballer to a coaching career in rugby union.

Since crossing football codes, Byrne, who won the VFL Premiership with Hawthorn in 1983, has gone on to coach various teams at both international and Super Rugby level.

During his time with the All Blacks, Byrne won two World Cups as skills coach over a decade-long period between 2005 and 2015.

He then cross the ditch to return to his native Australia in 2016, where assumed the same role with the Wallabies until last January after having previously working for the side as a kicking coach in 1998.

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Byrne was also an assistant coach for the Blues between 2012 and 2014 and Japan between 2009 and 2011, both times of which he was responsible for the forwards, the breakdown, skills and kicking, and has been part of the Scottish coaching set-up.

More recently, Byrne has held roles as the director of rugby at Austin Gilgronis in Major League Rugby and led the Canadian women’s sevens team to the Tokyo Olympics last month after having worked as a consultant for the team since 2012.

The acquisition of Byrne comes after the Drua announced they had signed the first five players for their 2022 Super Rugby Pacific squad on Monday.

Those players were Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Napolioni Bolaca, one-test hooker Tevita Ikanivere, Bay of Plenty wing Onisi Ratave, experienced loose forward Nemani Nagusa and two-test halfback Simione Kuruvoli.

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Bryne will be assisted by Nacanieli Cawanibuka, who was also confirmed as the Drua’s head of athletic performance after having previously worked for Fiji’s national sevens side.

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fl 30 minutes ago
Ex-Wallaby laughs off claims Bath are amongst the best in the world

“Yes I wrote that, because you had Leinster as the best team in the world. What was that based on - winning the URC this season?”

It was based on Leinster’s performances over the course of this season, and on their trophy. If Bordeaux beat Toulouse then I’ll change my mind and move them to first. But as it is I expect Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Leinster to all finish with one trophy each, and with Leinster having produced the best week-on-week performances of the three.


“One of those teams won the league in each of those years so yes they were worse. If I was a fan of either of those four teams I would rather have been a fan of a team that won a trophy than didn’t.”

That’s true - I would too. With regard to Stormers I think their trophy was very much enabled by the fact that they weren’t playing in europe, so were able to rest their players much more than the non-SA teams were so I’m not sure whether I would or wouldn’t consider them to have had a better season than Leinster in 2022, but clearly Munster and Glasgow (respectively) had better seasons than Leinster in 2023 and 2024. But if I was a fan of one of those 3 teams I would rather be a fan of a team that won 66 URC+CC matches over the course of 3 seasons (Leinster) than a team that won 46 (Munster) or 42 (Glasgow). If you think trophies are literally the only thing that matters, do you think Blackburn Rovers are a more successful Premier League team than Tottenham Hotspur are?


“You contradict yourself alot. Trophies matter in one post and in the same post coming second consistently makes you better.”

Its going to get really frustrating if you’re not willing to read what I write. I said: “Trophies matter. They matter a lot. But so does winning games. So does making finals.” How does that contradict my assessment that Leinster were better than Stormers?


“I doubt Leinster would say they have been the better team in any of the seasons you keep going on about.”

Teams generally downplay talk of them being the best, so that wouldn’t surprise me. But crucially I don’t think Leinster were the best team in 2022, or in 2023, or in 2024, so I’m not sure what you think you’re responding to.


“Lets make it clear though - you are the one who went on and on about previous seasons with your deep dive into la Rochelle and Stormers etc.”

Yeah - I did that because you brought up Leinster’s trophyless record from 2022-2024, so I thought that was worth responding to. If you’d like though I can stop responding to the things you say?

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