Brown ‘not coming back’ to Highlanders
New Highlanders chair Peter Kean says they have started the search for a new head coach for 2023 and beyond, with Tony Brown moving on at the end of his three-year deal.
Kean has replaced Doug Harvie as Highlanders chair, and will bring business acumen and experience to the role, having served as a New Zealand Rugby board director for six years.
One of his first tasks will be to
Aoversee the appointment of a successor to Brown, who will devote his energies to Japan next year in the buildup to the Rugby World Cup in France.
‘‘That got delayed by Covid, but we’re going through a process of recruiting for a head coach at the moment,’’ Kean said yesterday.
‘‘You clearly we don’t want to destabilise things during the season, but certainly that process is starting.
‘‘From my understanding Browny is not going to come back and as head coach next year. I think his time’s up.’’ winger called Jonah scoring four tries in his team’s big victory. Sound familiar?
Some 27 years after Jonah Lomu trampled all over England in that All Blacks’ World Cup semifinal win in Cape Town, one Jonah Lowe matched his namesake’s quadruple feats, in the Chiefs’ Super Rugby Pacific victory over the Waratahs in Melbourne a fortnight ago.
Stuff had suspicions Lowe, who turns 26 on Monday, could well have inherited his first name from the late, great Lomu, who instantly rose to mega stardom at that 1995 tournament. And on inquiry this week the Hastings-born product did not disappoint.
‘‘Yeah, Jonah Lomu was in his prime in 1995-96, I was born in 96 ... so that’s where my name came from,’’ Lowe said.
‘‘I’ve got four older brothers. Jonah was the man back then. They loved him, obviously, so they were trying to get my parents to call me that.
‘‘My dad was probably hassling my mumjust as much, he’s a big rugby fan.’’
Lowe quickly started his own rugby journey, aged four, up against kids a year older than him. It was 2000 – the year Lomu scored that memorable matchwinner in the Bledisloe Cup epic in Sydney.
Imagine the shouts of ‘‘Go Jonah’’ on a kids’ rugby sideline.
So just when did Lowe grasp that he was named after this new superstar of the sport?
‘‘Kind of always,’’ he said.
‘‘You heard about him all the time, so pretty much for as long as I remember, I knew who he was.
‘‘I can’t really remember actually seeing him play. But you see a lot of videos growing up on YouTube and stuff.’’
It wasn’t on the wing where Lowe initially made his name, though. He shone as a centre, and in moving to Auckland’s King’s College for his last two years of secondary school, he, remarkably, linked in the midfield with another boy called Jonah.
‘‘He was a real good player as well.’’ Then, it was just a few months after Lomu’s death in 2015 that Lowe was making his NPC debut for his native Hawke’s Bay.
And was there a stack of expectation carrying such an iconic rugby name, particularly after making the move to the wing with the Magpies being stacked in the midfield department?
‘‘No, not really, eh,’’ Lowe said. ‘‘More just being my brothers’ younger brother. Everyone knew who Karl [the
Brown’s exit in 2023 has been well signposted by the Highlanders, and Kean said the Highlanders would now have to weigh up the merits of an internal candidate such as current assistant coach Clarke Dermody versus an external one.
‘‘We’re looking wider but Clarke Dermody would certainly be a contender,’’ Kean said. ‘‘I think it’s like anything in sport or business. Generally, you have a really good internal candidate, and you normally would have a good external candidate.
‘‘Hopefully, we come out with a really good coaching group. We’ve got former Hawke’s Bay, Hurricanes, Junior All Blacks and Māori All Blacks flanker] was when I was coming up.
‘‘So that was probably more pressure than being called Jonah.’’
Lowe’s first shot at Super Rugby came in 2017 with the Hurricanes – who Lomu had ended up playing the majority of his Super Rugby for – but in four years in the capital he notched all of just four games.
‘‘My first two years I was just learning, I was pretty young, only 19-20,’’ he said.
‘‘Then my last two years I fractured my shoulder three times. And then I would come back and get into good shape and I would just do it again.
‘‘But they had a lot of good wingers there as well, so it was hard to crack there.’’
Seeing a better opportunity at the Chiefs, Lowe shifted north and his career has gone to the next level, in an environment he has thrived in.
‘‘I’ve been loving it, eh. It’s a real good culture here, everyone gets along, it’s like a big family.
‘‘I’ve only been here for two years but it feels like I’ve been here for ages, all the a really good coaching group now but change gives you opportunity.
‘‘Brownie has been a great coach, but he’s obviously got international tie-ups with Jamie [Joseph] with Japan, and who knows what the future could be with Tony Brown, because his name was all over the show last time when they were picking the All Blacks coach.’’
Brown has been head coach at the Highlanders for two years. During that time, the Highlanders made the final of Super Rugby Trans-Tasman, and Kean praised Brown and Dermody for building a good culture boys and coaches are friendly.’’
Sporting a 1.84m, 92kg frame that was anything but similar to the Jonah that went before (Lomu being a massive 1.96m and 120kg), Lowe proved an under-rated, dependable-rather-thanflashy performer last year, notching eight appearances and two tries, which earned him another one-year deal for 2022.
Then, amidst a growing Chiefs’ list of unavailable outside backs, Lowe stood tall in the squad, with no evidence of ‘‘dropped lips’’ despite their underwhelming results so far this year.
On the flipside, the Highlanders have won only three games out of 16 against the four other Kiwi clubs in the past two seasons, justifying the search for an external candidate.
Kean – who alongside Steve Hansen is also part of the group that owns world-class racehorse Nature Strip – said he was far from discouraged by the Highlanders’ results this year, noting that they could have won ‘‘over half’’ their games in different circumstances. for his crowning glory in that 51-27 Super Round win over the Waratahs at AAMI Park when he dotted down for his fab four five-pointers.
‘‘Yeah, I was pretty happy with that, but I have to do the old ‘full credit to the boys’ –
However, his years of corporate experience – he used to run Lion Nathan – had taught him to look at the bigger picture.
‘‘It’s not a despondency on the board,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ve got to take stock, look back at what we’ve achieved [in the past], and what we’ve got coming through.
‘‘ Clearly, we’d love to make those playoffs because the Highlanders are a team that can beat any team on the day.
‘‘. . . but you do have seasons like that, unfortunately. But, there’s a really good feel in that team.’’
What: Who: Where, when:
Chiefs:
Brumbies: ■
I didn’t really have to do much, just finish it off, so it was a good team effort,’’ Lowe said, scratching his head for when the last time would have been that he managed a quadruple.
‘‘It would have been back in 12th grade or kiddy rugby or something.’’
Now back home after two games in Australia, Lowe is looking for a big finish to the season, admitting he has to weigh up his next rugby move, amid a desire to add the ultimate black jersey to the New Zealand Secondary Schools, New Zealand Under-20s and Māori All Blacks ones he has already collected.
‘‘I’m not sure what I want to do next year yet, I’ll have to start thinking about that,’’ he said.
‘‘At the moment I’m focusing on trying to get game time.
‘‘The end goal’s always the All Blacks. But I don’t really focus on that, just try and play as well as I can, and if stuff happens it happens.’’