Larkham saddles up to coach Brumbies

WALLABY great Stephen Larkham will take over from Jake White as the new head coach of the ACT Brumbies for the next two Super Rugby seasons. The club said also yesterday announced that former head coach Laurie Fisher had been appointed the Brumbies’s director of rugby in a new coaching framework at the Canberra-based outfit.

The Brumbies said Fisher would control the club’s rugby operations, while 102-cap former Wallaby flyhalf Larkham would run the team.

Larkham, 39, a Brumbies player for 11 years, was promoted after spending the past three seasons as an assistant coach to White.

“We have a great group of players and I’m looking forward to developing the team alongside Laurie,” he said. “Laurie and I have worked well together over the past two years. There’s robust discussions, and you put your arguments to one another. It’s whoever argues the best point who comes away with it at the end.”

Fisher, who was head coach from 2005 to 2008, said on top of his new duties he would continue to focus on the forwards, the breakdown and the tackle.

The appointments come after the resignation of White in September, who left just over a month after taking the side to the Super Rugby final and is now director of rugby of the Sharks. – Sapa-AFP