In recent seasons North Harbour Rugby has been blessed with some pretty good coaches for its Mitre 10 Cup senior sides. These coaches have helped deliver some pretty solid results for the union. Steve Jackson helped the union get promoted to the premiership before leaving for the Blues and now Manu Samoa, while Tom Coventry took Harbour to the semi-finals of the Mitre 10 Cup before his move to the Blues. Harbour’s new coach for 2019, former All Black Kieran Keane, looks set to continue these positive results for the union as he brings a wealth of coaching experience to the Union. Channel Mag’s Aidan Bennett caught up with him for a chat at QBE Stadium in mid-June.
As a rugby-mad youngster I can remember watching Kieran Keane play for Canterbury and the All Blacks. Predominantly a second-five, he was a nuggety player – described as a tigerish tackler and solid attacker – who played for Canterbury sides for a decade and was good enough to play six times as an All Black back in 1979. He was at second five in the second unofficial test against the Argentina Pumas and then won selection for the All Blacks on the short tour of England, Scotland and Italy. He also played first five, wing and fullback from time-to-time in his career that included matches for the New Zealand Universities team.
When I approached him for an interview he was a bit gruff on the phone, so I didn’t know what to expect when I went along to North Harbour's administration base beside QBE Stadium in Albany. I am pleased to report that I discovered a real good bloke, who obviously loves to chat and yarn. He loves his sport as well. All sports. He follows racehorses, enjoys yachting and fishing and generally being out on the water.
Kieran Keane’s home base is near the water at Waikawa, near Picton, in the Marlborough Sounds. In fact his wife Jackie is based there and he tries to get home as often as he can. But that is not that often in the rugby season. Kieran has two kids, a son and daughter, now grown up and in their 30s, based in Auckland and Australia.
A schoolteacher by profession, during and after his playing career Kieran turned with success to coaching. This was initially as a school rugby coach, then as a player-coach with club sides (Belfast in Canterbury and Harlequins, Marlborough), with national age group sides and then at provincial level with Marlborough and Hawke's Bay. He then went on to coach Tasman Makos in the ITM Cup and has also had two stints as an assistant coach in Super Rugby, two years with Jamie Joseph at the Highlanders and two years with Dave Rennie at The Chiefs.
Kieran Keane says the game has changed dramatically since he was playing on the '80s.
“It is more sophisticated, there are alot more nuances to the game and the contest is now much more physical and the athletes need to be in prime condition to handle it. There has also been a massive change on the coaching front.”
You can see the attraction of Keane to the Harbour union. During his tenure with the Makos, Keane led the team to an ITM Cup Championship victory and promotion into the premiership in 2013. The following year, he took them to the premiership final. As well as shaping their attacking style of rugby, Keane helped promote more than 15 players to Super Rugby during his time with the province. He sounds like a great fit for the progressive Harbour union.
His most recent coaching assignment was with the Connacht club in Ireland, where he implemented some sound structures that will serve Connacht well into the future, however despite an outstanding win over Leinster (Pro 14 and European Cup Champions) in his last match of the season, KK (as he is affectionally known) concluded his contract early by mutual agreement.
“I am absolutely thrilled to be back in New Zealand Rugby and in such a beautiful part of the world,” said Kieran, when I quizzed him about his new role and environment. “I’m appreciating the warm climate, the warmth of the people and the fantastic facilities we have here at Harbour. But the traffic is an eye opener for a country boy from the South Island. Where I come from all we have is a couple of roundabouts!”
“At present we are preparing for the season. We had our game of three halves in late May with Auckland and the Honda Heat from Japan and this was a good opportunity for our younger players and others to put their hands up in a trial-like game. Our next match is a pre-season fixture against Auckland on June 26th.”
Kieran and his coaching team are working towards having the squad ready to perform from game one in the Mitre 10 Cup. That is the battle of the bridge at Eden Park against Auckland on Friday August 9th. Home games at QBE Stadium in 2019 are against Counties Manukau, Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Otago and Wellington. The aim will be to play in the finals which are scheduled for October 18th, 19th, 25th and 26th.
The QBE Harbour team will be pretty strong once again in 2019. The squad includes 11 Super Rugby players. These are Bryn Hall (Crusaders); Mark Talea (Hurricanes); Dillon Hunt (Highlanders); Sean Stevenson (Chiefs); James Parsons (Blues); Matt Duffie (Blues); Gerard Cowley-Tuioti (Blues); Lua Li (Blues); Sione Mafileo (Blues); Jacob Pearce (Blues); Karl Tu’inukuafe (Blues).
Kieran Keane has a pretty good support team helping him to get the QBE Harbour well prepared for the 2019 season. Assistant coaches are Sam Ward and Brett Craies, team manager is Peter White, assistant manager Spy Kelly, Chris Smylie is the player pathways manager, Alistair Beeton is in charge of video and performance analysis, Alex King is strength and conditioning and Matt Wenham is the physio.
It looks like 2019 is shaping up well for QBE North Harbour. Go the
mighty Harbour!
Visit: harbourrugby.co.nz
