Source: Radio New Zealand
Chiefs assistant coach Roger Randle. Clay Cross
Long serving chiefs assistant coach Roger Randle will leave the club after the Super Rugby season to join his former boss Clayton McMillan at Munster.
Former All Blacks wing Randle, who has been a coach at the Hamilton based franchise since 2018, will link up with former Chiefs head coach McMillan in Ireland in July.
Randle, 51, played two games for the All Blacks in 2001 and won sevens gold at the 1998 and 2002 Commonwealth Games.
Clayton McMillan and Roger Randle. Martin Hunter/ www.photosport.nz
He played 59 games for the Chiefs between 1998 and 2003.
He has coached Waikato in the NPC and has been a part of the Māori All Blacks coaching team since 2018. He also helped coach the NZ Barbarians against the British and Irish Lions in 2017.
The Chiefs have figured heavily in Randle’s life and he said it will be hard to leave.
“I have loved my time at the Chiefs,” Randle said.
“It is a club my whānau and I hold very close to our hearts. But this is an exciting opportunity and one I am looking forward to.
“Coaching internationally will be a new and exciting challenge for me, and it will be good to reunite with Clayton. But I still have a job to do at the Chiefs, and that is helping this group win another Super Rugby title.”
Chiefs head coach Jono Gibbes said Randle would leave a lasting legacy.
“Through his innovative and creative lens on the game, and his unparallelled work ethic, he is constantly chasing improvements in our attacking game,” Gibbes said.
“Roger isn’t just part of the fabric here at the Chiefs; he’s been instrumental in weaving it. He’ll leave a massive hole, and we wish him and his whānau all the best in Ireland.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand