Kiwi Searancke

Last updated

Kiwi Searancke
Birth nameKiwi Searancke
Place of birthNew Zealand
Rugby union career
Position(s) Prop
Amateur team(s)
YearsTeamApps(Points)
-
  • Te Awamutu OB
  • Hamilton Marist
  • Eastern Suburbs
()
Provincial / State sides
YearsTeamApps(Points)
1976-83 Waikato 73 (4)
Teams coached
YearsTeam
1999-2001
2002-03
2004-05
Waikato
Glasgow Warriors
Poverty Bay

Kiwi Searancke (born c. 1952 in New Zealand) is a former rugby union player, and former head coach of Glasgow Rugby, now known as the Glasgow Warriors. He took over the club from Richie Dixon on 27 June 2002 when Dixon was appointed the SRU's Head of Coach Development. [1]

Contents

Rugby union career

Amateur career

Searancke played for Te Awamutu OB, Hamilton Marist and Eastern Suburbs. [2]

Provincial career

Searancke was a prop for Waikato. [3]

Coaching career

Waikato and New Zealand

He was a coach of Waikato Rugby and was also involved in developing New Zealand's young rugby talent as a national under-21 selector and a coach of the New Zealand Nike Youth Team.

Glasgow Warriors

The SRU's Director of Rugby Jim Telfer stated that he was keen for the Glasgow players to experience different styles of coaching in bringing in Searancke. He appointed Steve Anderson, previously the Australian National rugby league assistant coach, as Searancke's assistant. Also kept on as assistant was Gordon Macpherson.

Telfer and Dixon were embarrassed by the fitness of the Glasgow players returning from their holidays to start their pre-season training. A good few of the players were out of condition and two Scotland international forwards laboured on a 3 km run in Dalziel Country Park. The professional players had previously been given a fitness programme to follow in the close season in an effort to match Super12 physical standards.

Searancke was to bring in a toughness to managing the squad who he felt were under-performing. Not surprisingly though his uncompromising attitude ruffled many of the Glasgow players and soon there was a split in the dressing room between players and management. [4]

Searancke's time in charge of the Glasgow side is named as ninth in the top 10 coaching disasters in the book Rugby Top 10 of Everything. It remarks: "He was critical of his players too often. Almost weekly Searancke would publicly remark about their poor basic skills and questionable attitudes". Yet Searancke often blamed himself rather than the players; lamenting on a poor decision by Gordon Bulloch which cost Glasgow the game against Ulster he said "It boiled down to the fact that we had not discussed the scoring permutations and the tie-break situation. It is something the coaches should have sorted out with the players earlier in the week. It didn't happen - so that was a mistake of mine." [5]

His fiery nature wasn't helped weeks later when Glasgow were thumped in the Heineken Cup 45-3 by Sale. This led to a public shouting match in the team room at Glasgow's Manchester hotel between Searancke and Glasgow's marketing manager Graham Clarke when Clarke picked the wrong time to ask Searancke to sign a shirt. "If you don't leave here, I'll punch you in the face" was the response. Searancke was to receive an official warning by the club for his behaviour. [4]

Telfer met Glasgow's senior players to assess the mood before reaching the decision with Glasgow that Searancke and Macpherson had to go. Anderson was moved to the SRU to help with Elite Development. At the time Telfer noted that Searancke's appointment at Glasgow was a mistake. [6] However in his autobiography 'Looking back... for once' he states that he regretted the sacking as Searancke identified limitations in terms of the players' standards and their ability to push themselves to the levels required to be consistently competitive. This was backed by outgoing Glasgow player Jason White who stated that a lot of the problems were with the players. [7]

Back to New Zealand

Searancke left Glasgow Warriors on 1 April 2003 and shortly afterwards got a job back in New Zealand coaching Poverty Bay rugby club. During that tenure as head coach he took Poverty Bay from the mid ranks of the division to win that division within a season

Searancke became a coach of the Black Ferns. [8] [9]

Related Research Articles

James Telfer is a Scottish rugby union coach and a former rugby union footballer. As a player, he gained 21 international caps in the amateur era, also having a career as a headmaster at Hawick High School and Galashiels Academy as a chemistry teacher. He won fame as a Scottish forwards coach who gave punishing training sessions to his players. With Sir Ian McGeechan he has had success with both the Scotland national rugby union team and the British and Irish Lions.

Sean Lineen is a former Scotland international rugby union player. He was a former Head Coach of Glasgow Warriors from 2006 to 2012. He is now a Director for the Scottish Rugby Union.

Jerome Ropati

Jerome Ropati is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer who played his entire career for the New Zealand Warriors in the NRL. Ropati also represented New Zealand, and was a member of the World Cup-winning team in 2008. He played as a centre, and occasionally as a fullback and five-eighth.

Lance Hohaia New Zealand rugby league footballer

Lance Koro Hohaia, also known by the nickname of "The Huntly Hurricane", is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer. A New Zealand international representative utility back, he played in the NRL for the New Zealand Warriors and the Super League for St Helens, with whom he won the 2014 Super League championship. In 2008 Hohaia was a member of the World Cup winning New Zealand team.

Tony Roy Iro is the current head coach of the Cook Islands national rugby league team, and a former rugby league footballer. He is a former New Zealand international player - a veteran of 25 Tests, playing either on the wing or in the second row.

The 2011 New Zealand rugby league season was the 104th season of rugby league that had been played in New Zealand. The main feature of the year was the National Competition run by the New Zealand Rugby League. The premier teams competed for the Albert Baskerville Trophy, which was won by the Auckland Pride when they defeated the South Island Scorpions 44 - 34 in the Grand Final.

Gordon Macpherson is a former New Zealand rugby union player. A lock, Macpherson represented Poverty Bay and Otago at a provincial level. He played a single match for the New Zealand national side, the All Blacks, a test against France in 1986.

Kevin Michael Greene is a former New Zealand rugby union player. A halfback, Greene represented Waikato at a provincial level, and was a member of the New Zealand national side, the All Blacks, in 1976 and 1977. He played eight games for the All Blacks but did not appear in any test matches.

Keith Robertson is a former head coach of Glasgow Rugby, now known as the Glasgow Warriors. He took over the club from fellow New Zealander Kevin Greene in November 1997 when it was felt that the head coach position should be a full-time post.

Hugh Campbell is a former Head Coach of the Glasgow Warriors.

Richie Dixon is a former rugby union footballer, former Head Coach of the Scotland National team, the Georgian National team and Glasgow Caledonians now known as Glasgow Warriors. He was head of Physical Education at Currie High School in Edinburgh from 1972 until 1980.

The 1996-97 season is the first in the history of the Glasgow Warriors as a professional side. The Warriors rugby union provincial side was created by turning the amateur provincial side Glasgow District into a professional outfit. During this season the newly professional side competed as Glasgow Rugby.

The 1997–98 season is the second in the history of the Glasgow Warriors as a professional side. During this season the young professional side competed as Glasgow Rugby.

Steve Anderson is a former Assistant Coach of Glasgow Rugby, now known as the Glasgow Warriors; a former rugby league coach of various clubs including assistant coach Australian Kangaroos; a former High Performance Manager of the Scottish and Irish Rugby Unions; and now head coach, High Performance, Rugby Australia

The 1998–99 season is the third in the history of the Glasgow Warriors as a professional side. During this season the young professional side competed as Glasgow Caledonians.

The 2002–03 season is the seventh in the history of the Glasgow Warriors as a professional side. During this season the young professional side competed as Glasgow Rugby.

Joe Naufahu is a New Zealand actor and former professional rugby player. During his rugby career, he played for the Leicester Tigers and Glasgow Warriors, among others, and briefly coached the Glasgow Hutchesons Aloysians. He began acting in 2005. Most notably, he portrayed Khal Moro in the sixth season of the HBO fantasy TV series Game of Thrones.

Glasgow Southern RFC was a former rugby union team. It was based in Giffnock, East Renfrewshire. Previously known as Clarkston RFC the Club altered its name to Glasgow Southern RFC in an AGM of May 1995. In 2002, the club merged with a Glasgow club Hutchesons Aloysians to form Glasgow Hutchesons Aloysians RFC.

The 2017 New Zealand rugby league season was the 110th season of rugby league that had been played in New Zealand. The main feature of the year was the National Competition, run by the New Zealand Rugby League. The New Zealand national rugby league team also competed at the 2017 Rugby League World Cup.

Hamilton Burr is a Scotland Club XV professional rugby union player. He previously was a Stage 3 Scottish Rugby Academy player assigned to Glasgow Warriors. His usual position is at the flanker position.

References

  1. "Glasgow Appoint Two New Coaches". Glasgow Warriors. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
  2. http://www.rugbyhistory.co.nz/player/i-kiwi-searancke [ bare URL ]
  3. http://www.theroar.com.au/2017/03/10/sending-player-off-always-ruins-game-rugby/ [ bare URL ]
  4. 1 2 "Road to nowhere beckons Glasgow Kiwi Searancke". The Scotsman. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
  5. "Rugby Union: KIWI TAKES BULL BY HORNS; Searancke: Don't blame Gord. - Free Online Library". Thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
  6. "'Mistake' made over Searancke". Telegraph.co.uk. 26 April 2003. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
  7. Richard Bright (26 April 2003). "'Mistake' made over Searancke". Telegraph.co.uk.
  8. https://www.odt.co.nz/sport/rugby/rugby-importance-maori-culture-stressed [ bare URL ]
  9. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503460&objectid=10931593 [ bare URL ]