Former All Blacks coach Steve Hansen yesterday confirmed his long-expected move to Japan where he will take up a role as coaching consultant with Top League side Toyota Verblitz.
The 60-year-old stepped down from the All Blacks following their third-place finish at the Rugby World Cup. He spent 16 years with the team, the last eight as head coach, and was a part of two successful World Cup campaigns.
“I’ve got a new job which involves me mentoring, consulting and advising at Toyota Verblitz,” he said in a video on the All Blacks website. “It’s not as a head coach, it’s more as an adviser, a mentor, and it requires me to be up there for five to 17 weeks a year.”
Toyota are coached by fellow New Zealander Simon Cron, who was an assistant at the New South Wales Waratahs for two years until the end of the 2019 Super Rugby season.
“The key thing is to go in and work with the people in the environment,” Hansen added. “The opportunity to help him (Cron) grow is something that really excites me.
“While it’s not a full-time coaching role, it’s a role that still allows me to stay in the game. It’s also a role that will allow me to have the family time that I want to have and I’m really looking forward to it.”
New Zealand media had reported earlier this year that Hansen was headed to Japan after the World Cup but he said yesterday he had not signed anything until after the tournament had ended. He will link up with former All Blacks captain Kieran Read, who signed a one-year contract with Toyota earlier this year. New Zealand Rugby are in the process of appointing Hansen’s successor with his former assistant Ian Foster and Canterbury Crusaders head coach Scott Robertson the leading candidates.


Wallabies assistant coach to help Japan’s Sunwolves 
Wallabies assistant coach Nathan Grey will also serve as technical director to Super Rugby side Sunwolves next season to help Japan build on a successful World Cup, it was announced yesterday.
The highly-regarded 35-Test Wallaby was working as Australia’s defence coach under the now-departed Michael Cheika, but will assume the role of national high-performance coach adviser next year.
In an unprecedented move, Grey will also work with the Sunwolves to support their new head coach Naoya Okubo under an agreement with the Japan Rugby Football Union. “Nathan’s role with the Sunwolves came out of discussions with the JRFU and the support they felt they needed to continue to grow,” said Australian director of rugby Scott Johnson.
“We’re really proud of the relationship we have with the JRFU and we’ve been looking at new ways in how we can collaborate to achieve our respective goals across the business but specifically in high performance.”
Super Rugby’s governing body SANZAAR announced this year it would be axing the underperforming Sunwolves following the 2020 season as the competition reverts from a 15-team conference system back to a 14-team round-robin format. But Japan’s success at the World Cup on home soil, where they made the quarter-finals, has seen some suggestions that they may get a reprieve.
“The Sunwolves have an incredibly talented group of players that are keen to learn, and the same can be said of the coaching staff in Tokyo too,” said Grey.
“We all saw from the recent World Cup just how much ability and potential there is in Japan, and I will be doing all I can to help in their development.”
Under his new Australian rugby role, Grey will work with the men’s and women’s Sevens program as well as the Wallaroos and junior Wallabies. 
Former Queensland Reds’ Matt Taylor is tipped to replace him as Wallabies defence coach as new head coach Dave Rennie builds his own team of assistants.
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