Former Wallabies coach Laurie Fisher takes on new Test role

Former Wallabies forwards coach Laurie Fisher is currently lending his expertise to the Zimbabwe national team as the Sables prepare for this weekend’s Test against Namibia in Harare.

The 68-year-old left his role with the Wallabies when Joe Schmidt handed over the head coach baton to Les Kiss in July, but is now back in the Test arena as a consultant to the African champions.

With less than a year to go before they appear at a Rugby World Cup for the first time since 1991, Zimbabwe recognised the need to bolster their coaching staff. Former Exeter Chiefs skills coach Ricky Pellow (backs/attack) is another recent addition to the team supporting head coach Pieter Benade.

Saturday’s match against Namibia serves as a warm-up to the second phase of the World Rugby Nations Cup, which resumes at the start of next month.

Zimbabwe have two UK-based fixtures, on 7 and 14 November, against Samoa at the DIY Kitchens Stadium in Wakefield, the home of the current Super League champions, and against Uruguay at Ealing’s Trailfinders ground. The Sables will then head to Angoulême in France to play Chile on 21 November.

Zimbabwe competed well but lost all three of their Nations Cup matches in July, 36-26 to Tonga, 31-15 to USA and 23-19 to Canada.

“It was a very encouraging Nations Cup competition for us in July,” reflected Zimbabwe High Performance Director Liam Middleton.

“As part of our review afterwards, we identified that the breakdown was an area that we wanted to make some big improvements in the next few months.

“With the help of World Rugby, we were able to get Laurie Fisher here.

“He’s a class coach, a breakdown specialist, a font of incredible rugby coaching knowledge and he is here in camp this week as we prepare for our Test match against Namibia.

“He will be working with our players and coaches, he will be doing some coach development sessions with local club and schools coaches, and he will make a huge difference to how we play in that area.”

Fisher, who has been coaching for 25 years, added: “I’m here short-term trying to help the Zimbabwe Sables around their breakdown and collision work.

“They are a really exciting bunch to work with, they have a lot of power, a lot of energy and we are just trying to put some fundamentals in place that’ll help them in the Test against Namibia and into the Nations Cup that they can carry forward into the World Cup next year.”