Discarded All Blacks coach holds no ‘grudges’ as he rejoins the Crusaders after ‘tough’ experience
Former All Blacks assistant Brad Mooar while coaching the Scarlets.
Former All Blacks attack coach Brad Mooar will return to the Crusaders for the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific season after signing a two-year deal.
The 50-year-old was part of Scott Robertson’s coaching side that dominated the competition as they claimed three successive titles between 2017 and 2019 before he joined Welsh side the Scarlets as head coach.
Mooar was then headhunted by incoming All Blacks boss Ian Foster following the 2019 global tournament and joined the national team in 2020.
Sacked
However, it all went disastrously wrong and in July 2022 he, alongside fellow assistant John Plumtree, were axed by New Zealand Rugby, with Joe Schmidt and Jason Ryan replacing them.
Since then Mooar worked for a brief period in Gregor Townsend’s backroom team at Scotland, but will now return to where he enjoyed his biggest success.
Interestingly, he heads back to a franchise that have struggled since the departure of Robertson with his successor, Rob Penney, under significant pressure going into the 2025 campaign.
“No … look, we say ‘good experience and bad experience’,” Mooar said of his time at the All Blacks.
“Take the good and bad away and just treat things as experiences, and deal with them as they come. What have we learned from them, how can we grow from that and get better.
“Look, I don’t hold any grudges whatsoever around that. It was a great privilege to be involved with the All Blacks. I learned plenty, had some great experiences right at the sharp end of high performance sport and international rugby.
“It was, like I say, a privilege. Now, certainly for a long time, it’s look forward through the windscreen and not the rear vision mirror.”
All Blacks: Changes to Ian Foster’s backroom team as John Plumtree and Brad Mooar axed
Dynasty
Under Robertson, the Crusaders won seven titles in as many seasons and Mooar was a key part of that dynasty having been there at the start.
Although he departed for the Scarlets after their 2019 success, he was still highly regarded back in New Zealand and duly cut that stay short to link up with Foster.
However, after murmurings of discontent within the All Blacks set-up, with players rumoured to be unhappy with Mooar and Plumtree, they were unceremoniously dumped instead of the under pressure head coach.
The attack guru revealed that he has stayed in touch with Foster despite being ousted by New Zealand Rugby before the completion of his All Blacks deal.
“Yeah, we have touched base and had the odd message back and forward,’’ he said. “Obviously he was a heck of a busy over the last couple of years and what not, so yep, no issues.
“Look, it was a time.
“Parts of it were tough, and from all experiences, we learn plenty. It’s we respond that is really important. It didn’t dampen the enthusiasm for coaching, for people, for leading and growing that those sorts of things, at all.
“Certainly it was something you take stock, and reflect, and go ‘okay, well what would be the right thing next?’ I have had some great experiences since.”
