Wayne Pivac leaves Japanese role as 16 players exit including former Wales out-half

Ex-Wales boss Wayne Pivac has vacated his role with Japanese club Green Rockets after falling short of getting promoted back to League One.

Recruited in August 2023 following the club’s top-flight relegation, the Rockets finished second in Pivac’s first season in charge and lost a promotion/relegation play-off against Black Rams Tokyo.

The second time around, however, they were only good enough for a third-place finish, ending their campaign three points behind the table-topping Shuttles and two points shy of the second-place Kintetsu.

What ruined the Rockets’ promotion hopes was their 19-42 loss on May 3 to Kintetsu in their 13th match of the 14-game regular season.

Pivac now leaves his role with the club after two years in charge, in what was his first job since being dismissed by Wales in December 2022 and replaced by Warren Gatland.

Pivac had arrived in Japan with high hopes of achieving success

The 62-year-old Pivac is named on the League One website as one of six staff members leaving the second-tier Rockets along with a lengthy list of 16 players, including ex-Wales out-half Rhys Patchell and Ash Dixon, the former Maori skipper.

Last capped by the Welsh in the 2023 Six Nations, the 32-year-old Patchell moved to Japan last year following a Super Rugby Pacific stint at the Highlanders.

The 36-year-old Dixon, meanwhile, played the past four years for the Rockets having originally spent a year in the Far East at the Wild Knights on either side of his stints as the Highlanders hooker.

After getting ousted by Warren Gatland in Wales, Pivac had arrived in Japan with high hopes of achieving success with the Rockets. Following his appointment in 2023, he said: “It is a great honour and a privilege to be able to work alongside some fantastic people at NEC Green Rockets.

“Our slogan, ‘always above’, embodies everything we will be about throughout the 2023/24 season as we rebuild to be better and stronger than we have been in past seasons.

“We will be striving to return to the top division of Japanese rugby. Along the way we want to give our supporters plenty to cheer about with an exciting brand of rugby.”

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