Mauger named to coach Highlanders
Newly minted Highlanders coach Aaron Mauger will probably never have an easier job interview in his life.
The 36-year-old former All Blacks midfielder was yesterday confirmed as the Dunedin-based franchise’s head coach for the next three years, replacing Japanbound Tony Brown.
Mauger’s appointment as the team’s 10th head coach shouldn’t come as a surprise, but perhaps the ease in which it came about will.
Rather than being grilled in front of chief executive Roger Clark and the board, Mauger was backed by fellow candidate Mark Hammett in a discussion with Clark.
‘‘It was a matter of the three of us getting in a room and talking about what was best for the Highlanders moving forward,’’ Clark told Stuff.
‘‘We always said we would work through a process together to determine who the head coach would be, and that’s what we’ve done. That discussion was a very easy one, really.’’
Mauger, who played 46 tests and 89 Super games for the Crusaders, signed on as an assistant coach in May, about a month before long-time Highlanders assistant coach McLeod was confirmed as the All Blacks’ new defence coach.
Clark made it clear Brown’s replacement would be either Mauger or former Hurricanes and Sunwolves coach Hammett, who has just finished his first year as the Highlanders’ forwards coach.
‘‘Hammett was pretty instrumental in it. He thought I was the guy to lead forward, as did Roger, so it was a bit of a collaborative conclusion, which helped. It was all pretty smooth,’’ Mauger said.
With Brown joining former Highlanders coach Jamie Joseph in Japan, next year will be the third consecutive the franchise has gone into a season with a new coach.
Mauger, who like Brown will be in charge of the team’s attack, doesn’t have a huge deal of head coaching experience.
After finishing his playing career with Leicester (53 camps) in 2010, he returned home to Christchurch and nabbed an assistant coaching job with Canterbury’s NPC team.
He went on to work as the Crusaders’ attack coach under Todd Blackadder between 2013-15, before finishing up after they missed the playoffs for the first time since 2001.
A difficult stint with English Premiership side Leicester followed, with Mauger losing his head coaching job in March, two years into his three-year contract.
‘‘You’re always learning . . . it didn’t end in a great way but I’m pretty proud of how I left,’’ said Mauger, who won the Anglo-Welsh Cup but couldn’t guide the team past the pool stages of the European Championship Cup.