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#Post#: 110261--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tabai Matson being moved away from 1st team coach
DIR By: poorfour
Date: June 20, 2023, 2:28 am
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His coaching CV is a fair bit longer than that and goes back to
2005, albeit mostly a mixture of head coach roles at lower
levels and assistant international and top tier club roles, most
notably at Canterbury. His reputation was as a player/coach
developer rather than as a tactical or technical coach - but
then we had a cluster of good tactical and technical coaches who
were lacking in experience.
I haven’t been able to find the press release from when he was
originally appointed, but from memory (and from press interviews
and talking to the man himself on a few occasions) the tone of
it was very much that his role was to help NEv and co do their
jobs better rather than to be a conventional head coach -
providing challenge and advice.
It was never a conventional Head Coach / DoR role. From that and
some of the other changes (e.g. several of the coaches being put
on permanent rather than fixed term contracts), Quins are trying
to create a more sustainable structure than most teams have.
It still looks to me that what they’re doing here is recutting
the responsibilities between Matson and Millard in a slightly
different way. Matson is taking on the longer term development
stuff, Millard more of the day to day tactical stuff. That would
seem to play to their strengths.
#Post#: 110268--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tabai Matson being moved away from 1st team coach
DIR By: JammyGit
Date: June 20, 2023, 8:10 am
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--- Quote from: Muzza link ---
>
> When Matson was recruited - at best his coaching was limited
to assistant coach in NZ predominately at semi professional
level plus 1 year experience of head coach at Canterbury (that's
not the Crusaders) & a couple of years playing in the UK - my
main recollection of Matson involvement in rugby at that time
was as a TV rugby analyst not coaching - yet Poorfour says he
was recruited to mainly provide oversight and developmental
advice to the young coaches". This cannot be true.
>
> I am not saying that he was out of his depth because Razor
Robertson, Dave Rennie and Jamie Joseph were more or less at
that same level when they secured their first super rugby
professional head coaching gig - direct from domestic semi
professional NPC to international professional super rugby. So:
>
> What were the expectations when Quins recruited someone from
the other side of the world for their first full time
professional rugby head coach role. Was he one of the young
coaches that needed oversight and developmental advice or was he
just left to it.
>
>
--- End Quote ---
As poorfour says, his CV is a lot longer than that. He was head
coach at Bath, no? And he was assistant at both the Crusaders
and the Chiefs - not semi pro - for a long time.
As an aside, the difference between a Super Rugby assistant
coach and a Premiership Head Coach is probably not as dramatic
as you think. Different teams have different ways in which their
coaching teams have responsibility.
~8 years of experience of being an assistant coach for two
different NZ Super Rugby sides plus a year+ of Premiership head
coach experience with Bath is plenty for what Quins needed. Add
on experience as a coach in Japan + Aus, and as a player in NZ,
Japan, France, the UK, and Australia, and that makes him hugely
experienced in pro rugby in general. It makes perfect sense that
someone with his CV would be able to teach other coaches - he's
been coaching in one form or another for nearly 20 years and
will have a huge amount to pass on.
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