How Tony Brown kept potential Highlanders bolter from leaving New Zealand for France
Returning Highlanders assistant coach Tony Brown is the reason that the club’s newest recruit Tima Fainga’anuku decided to stay in New Zealand rather than resume his playing career in France.
The 22-year-old winger was drafted into Aaron Mauger’s squad last week as an injury replacement for youngster Connor Garden-Bachop, who will miss the entirety of next season after undergoing surgery to fix a troublesome back injury.
Fainga’anuku’s rise into the Dunedin-based franchise came after an impressive Mitre 10 Cup campaign with his native Tasman side, which went on an undefeated run to the Premiership title this year.
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His barnstorming form for the Mako came after he missed out on a Super Rugby contract this year, despite having made an appearance for the Crusaders during their title-winning season in 2018.
Fainga’anuku’s omission from Scott Robertson’s squad forced him to look at playing options abroad, and he surprised many by taking up an offer to move to France, where he joined Perpignan on a short-term deal for the 2018-19 European domestic campaign.
He returned to New Zealand this year, but despite his improved displays in the Mitre 10 Cup, another full-time Super Rugby contract went begging upon the announcements of next year’s squads last month.
That was until Highlanders chief executive Roger Clark called Fainga’anuku with an offer to replace Garden-Bachop, but with a return to France on the table – albeit in the Pro D2 following Perpignan’s relegation from the Top 14 last season – it was something the former New Zealand U20 representative took some time to consider.
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“It was a pretty tough decision [to stay in New Zealand],” he told Stuff. “I really enjoyed France. I really loved not just France but Europe.
“I enjoyed my time overseas. I learnt so much off the field. It’s just a good life experience.
“After the New Zealand U20s if you don’t get picked up [by Super Rugby teams] there is an in between.
“I felt like a good enough player to just be playing. I didn’t want to sit around. Rugby’s just a game for me. I just love playing it and meeting new people, I just wanted to play.”
However, Fainga’anuku revealed that the presence of Tony Brown in the Highlanders’ coaching ranks in 2020 was enough to persuade him to relocate to Dunedin rather than move back to Europe.
“Tony Brown is a legend,” he said. “When the opportunity came up I had a think about it but that motivated me, just to sponge up from him.”
After having taken charge of the Highlanders as both an assistant and head coach between 2014 and 2017, Brown established his coaching credentials on the global stage at the World Cup this year after helping Jamie Joseph take Japan to their maiden quarter-final appearance in compelling fashion.
Brown was credited with formulating the Brave Blossoms’ scintillating attacking play and precise backline moves which captivated onlookers not just within Japan, but across the world.
Fainga’anuku was one of many admirers of Brown’s coaching exploits, and the 44-year-old’s return to Forsyth Barr Stadium on a three-year deal proved to be the clincher in securing the speedster’s services ahead of the 2020 Super Rugby season.
“He’s sort of like a guru,” Fainga’anuku said to Stuff of Brown. “A few of the boys kick with their dominant foot and struggle with their other foot.
“But we had one kicking session and most of the boys now feel comfortable kicking off their least dominant foot. I’m not sure how he does it.
“I think he just puts so much behind making people better that it works.”
Brad Mooar admits he is "torn" over whether to join Ian Foster's @AllBlacks set-up.https://t.co/9GUZF1lD3W
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 16, 2019
After shedding eight kilos from his 115kg frame since linking up with his new teammates over pre-season, the explosive Fainga’anuku is eyeing up a match against his younger brother, Leicester, in the Highlanders’ pre-season fixture against the Crusaders in Wanaka on January 24.
After having grown up in the Crusaders’ region before being axed by the back-to-back-to-back reigning Super Rugby champions, there should be no lack of motivation for Fainga’anuku as he prepares to face his former side, although he bears no grudges.
“I didn’t really get an opportunity but I felt like I learnt a lot,” he said.
“When the Highlanders opportunity came up I looked as it as fresh start. It’s been a bit of a ride for me in my career.”
The Crusaders clash in Central Otago is one of two pre-season fixtures for the Highlanders, with the first of which coming against the Waratahs in Sydney a week beforehand.
The Highlanders will then get their regular season underway against the Sharks at Forsyth Barr Stadium on February 7.
In other news:
Comments on RugbyPass
Hold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
39 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
1 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
5 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
39 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
39 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to commentsThis is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?
35 Go to commentsWow, didn’t realise there was such apathy to URC in SA, or by Champions Cup teams. Just read Nick’s article on Crusaders, are Sharks a similar circumstance? I think SA rugby has been far more balanced than NZs, no?
4 Go to commentsBut here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.
39 Go to commentsIt could be coincidental or prescient that the All Blacks most dominant period under Steve Hansen was when the Crusaders had their least successful period under Todd Blackadder and then the positions reversed when Razor took over the Crusaders.
39 Go to commentsDefinitely sound read everybodyexpects immediate results these days, I don't think any team would travel well at all having lost three of the most important game changers in the game,compiled with the massive injury list they are now carrying, good to see a different more in depth perspective of a coaches history.
3 Go to commentsSinckler is a really big loss for English rugby.
2 Go to commentsThanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause
39 Go to comments