Rickards to coach Taranaki

Willie Rickards is the new Taranaki rugby coach.

Rickards, the current assistant, was given the nod after Taranaki Rugby’s board met on Friday afternoon to decide if they wanted him or former assistant coach Leo Crowley to take over from Colin Cooper who is now in charge of the Chiefs.

In the end they plumped for Rickards, one of the youngest, if not the youngest, coaches to take the reins in the union’s long history. ‘‘It’s been a full on couple of days, as you can imagine,’’ Rickards said after hearing the news. I feel really honoured, that’s how I feel. To have a chance to play for Taranaki, and captain Taranaki is really special, but to be the head coach is something else, something really unique and something really special.’’

Taranaki Rugby advertised the position just days after its Mitre 10 Cup side was beaten in the premiership semifinals by Tasman. From the list of applicants, four were believed to have been interviewed - Rickards, Crowley, Tukapa and Taranaki Under-19 coach Tim Stuck, as well as former captain and current forwards coach Paul Tito.

That quartet were then interviewed by a panel including Taranaki Rugby chief executive Michael Collins, union chairman Lindsay Thomson, Taranaki cocaptain Leighton Price and New Zealand Rugby high performance coach development manager Bruce Blair.

The panel then reduced it to Rickards and Crowley with the board making the final decision. Rickards has had a rapid rise in coaching since he opted to retire early in 2012 following Taranaki’s Ranfurly Shield loss to Waikato.

He quickly took Southern to their first ever premier club title before also enjoying success with the Taranaki sevens side who broke a decades long national title drought in Queenstown. Rickards then moved into the assistant coach’s job with Cooper which also brought a Ranfurly Shield victory over Canterbury this season.

He described the interview process as intense, especially after it came so close to the end of the Mitre 10 Cup season and its subsequent reviews. Rickards believed the continuity he could bring to the job was significant.

As yet he has not decided who would assist him and he stressed he wanted to get ‘‘out and about in the province’’ and receive plenty of feedback from all levels of people involved in the sport from secondary school level to its representative players.