Tana Umaga to be named as Moana Pasifika’s head coach – report
Former All Black Tana Umaga during his time as Blues head coach in 2018.
All Blacks legend and former Blues head coach Tana Umaga is set to take over the coaching reins at Moana Pasifika, according to a report in the New Zealand media.
Newshub reports that Umaga will replace former All Blacks team-mate Aaron Mauger, who stepped down from his position earlier this year after Moana Pasifika finished at the bottom of the Super Rugby Pacific table for the second successive year.
Moana only have three wins in two seasons
Moana finished their 2023 campaign with just one victory – in the final match of the regular season against the Waratahs in Sydney – after winning just two games in their inaugural Super Rugby Pacific campaign last year.
Umaga is no stranger to the Moana Pasifika set-up as he coached them during their one-off encounter against the Maori All Blacks in 2020.
The 50-year-old previously served as the Blues’ head coach from 2016 to 2018 before stepping down from that position as the Auckland-based outfit finished at the bottom of the New Zealand Super Rugby Conference during each of his three years in charge of the team.
That allowed Leon MacDonald to take charge of the Blues from 2019, although Umaga remained part of the backroom staff as the team’s defence coach until 2021. He then returned to work as a consultant for them from 2022.
The Newshub report on Umaga’s impending appointment as Moana’s new head coach also suggested that Blues forwards coach Tom Coventry could be joining Umaga’s backroom staff.
When Vern Cotter was announced as the new Blues head coach earlier this week, it was suggested that Umaga’s future with the Blues was uncertain. With Jason O’Halloran joining Cotter as an assistant coach, it meant that space was limited to retain the other incumbent backroom staff.
“Dan Halangahu, Craig [McGrath] and Paul [Tito] are all sorted, we’ve still got some ongoing discussions because we’ve looked at the structure around Tom [Coventry] and Tana, and they are discussions, so that’s why we took our time in the end,” said Blues chief executive Andrew Hore on Monday.
“We wanted to be in a position where we could do everybody, but that’s life isn’t it, and they’ve got choice as well.”
Fijian Drua flourishing
Although Moana have a talented squad of players, they have not reached the heights of fellow newbies Fijian Drua, who reached the 2023 Super Rugby Pacific quarter-finals where they lost to eventual champions the Crusaders.
At the end of this year’s tournament, Moana were also dealt a setback when they lost the services of star centre Levi Aumua, who signed a deal to join the Crusaders in 2024.
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