Three-time Major League Rugby (MLR) champions the New England Free Jacks have recruited the highly rated Pingi Tala’apitaga to join their coaching staff.
Over the past four years the former Highlanders prop has transformed into a world-class coach earning a formidable reputation as a scrum doctor and for leading one of the most physically threatening defences in New Zealand’s storied National Provincial Championship (NPC) with the Bay of Plenty.
His talents have even seen the 38-year-old coach the Women’s Rugby World Cup champions, the New Zealand Black Ferns, and play a key role in the development of current All Blacks and Super Rugby stars.
He will join Ryan Martin’s coaching staff ahead of the 2026 MLR season as the team strive to win North America’s professional men’s rugby competition for a fourth season running.
Learnt from the best
Calling time on his playing career after two seasons with Pro D2 club Soyaux Angoulême XV Charente, he returned straight home to New Zealand to put over two decades of learning to the test.
Over the course of his career Tala’apitaga had been under the tutelage of Jamie Joseph, Tony Brown, Wayne Smith, Dave Rennie and incoming Munster boss Clayton McMillan.
In the years after his retirement the Samoa-born coach took on any opportunity presented to him.
From coaching club rugby with Tauranga Sports Rugby Club to the youth ranks of the Chiefs, he took it on wholeheartedly. And excelled.
Following three years as the Bay of Plenty’s development team’s forwards and head coach, Tala’apitaga was promoted to the NPC squad.
At the end of his first season with the Steamers the stats in defence spoke for themselves.
The team produced the most dominant tackles in the competition with 88, conceded the third-least tries in the competition and won 104 turnovers.
In the years that followed, Plenty continued to impress with their aggressive work without the ball.
This included a 79 per cent tackle success rate in 2024 as the team finished as runners-up in the NPC. Additionally, the team were fifth in the NPC in dominant tackles and second in turnovers won in the tackle to underline their ball-focused defence.
“I’ve always had a philosophy that physicality is the first pillar that you need to be successful in rugby,” Tala’apitaga said.
“If you don’t have physicality there aren’t many competitions you can actually win.
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“Understanding that as a key pillar, I then shape out systems and structures around that, such as how we win collisions.
“It is really important to the way I work, and I’m always trying to push the boundaries and understand the laws of the game.”
There is also a special place for the scrum in Tala’apitaga’s heart. For well over a decade he lived on a crouch, bind and set diet, and propping against some of the world’s best looseheads.
When it comes to the set-piece, the 38-year-old does not buy into the traditional notion of dark arts. He just sees physics.
To coach his players, Tala’apitaga breaks down the basics of a scrum in the classroom and outlines how all eight players in the pack have their part to play. Out on the training paddock he will partner props against one another in micro scrum drills, before adding more bodies.
Through allowing players to work out problems against other players in live scrumming scenarios, he has aided individual development and reaped its rewards in the NPC.
Over the past three years, Bay of Plenty have won 47 penalties at scrum time, the second most of any team in the competition during that period. Such has been the dominance of the set-piece, it is regularly used to launch attacking plays and yielded 23 tries – 12 of which came within three phases of possession.
In 2023, the Steamers’ scrum had the second highest level of retention (96.4 per cent) as the side went out at the NPC’s quarter-final stage against Hawke’s Bay.
As Tala’apitaga’s reputation has grown so has the number of promising youngsters sent his way.
Five-cap All Blacks tighthead prop Pasilio Tosi was still in the early stages of his transition from the back-row to the front three before his debut season with Bay of Plenty in 2022. Two years later, he made his All Blacks debut from the bench against Fiji.
Both the Highlanders’ Josh Bartlett and Hurricanes’ Tevita Mafileo have also benefited from Tala’apitaga’s tutelage and could well be in the All Blacks mix by the time the Rugby World Cup hits Australia in 2027.
“The thing I’m most proud of is the amount of professional front-rowers I’ve produced in my short amount of time,” the prop whisperer said.
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“I take great pride in coaching youngsters that are just joining the professional ranks and through my coaching I’m able to help them excel in Super Rugby.”
This notoriety at scrum time even earned Tala’apitaga the opportunity to coach the world champion Black Ferns at 2023’s WXV 1 in New Zealand.
With Mike Cron away with Tonga at the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France, he was put on secondment with Allan Bunting’s team. For a month his life was nothing but set-piece time.
Ahead of the tournament, New Zealand had struggles at the scrum, with Tala’apitaga there to stem the tide and provide a firm foundation that could help the side long-term.
His approach was no different. He poured over the team’s most recent games. Watched back individual players’ Super Rugby Aupiki matches. He met with every player individually. He even showed them examples from the Red Roses, in part to fire up his players, but also to highlight some of the mannerisms he wanted the Black Ferns to take on.
It is safe to say it worked.
A front three that regularly consisted of Amy Rule and Georgia Ponsonby – while Kate Henwood and Krystal Murray traded starting spots – had a 93 per cent retention rate, scored a competition high three tries from the set-piece and won four scrum penalties.
In a staggeringly short space of time, Tala’apitaga managed to turn a weak part of the team’s game and turn it into a real strength.
“I got really good buy-in because I demonstrated that I could actually help,” he said.
“When you do that, then it is about showing the corrections and, when they do it right, really celebrating that and making a big deal of it to show everyone in the team how important their job is.
“When you have that initial success, it snowballs and the buy-in comes more readily.”
These four years of excellence have not gone unnoticed. Now on his way to New England to join the Free Jacks, Tala’apitaga hopes to bring all these years of experience to MLR.
Under Martin this year, the side have already written themselves a unique chapter in American rugby history as they won the competition for a third year running.
The recruitment of Tala’apitaga’s is an early sign of intent from the team, who hope to add another layer of brutal physicality and set-piece dominance to their play.
Four in a row goal
Not content with a three-peat, already the idea of bringing a fourth MLR Shield back to their Quincy, Massachusetts, home is firmly on the agenda.
In their new thoughtful, prop rearing, assistant coach they have found someone to help that dream become a reality.
“Some would look at it and say it’s a daunting task to go somewhere they have already won it three times,” Tala’apitaga said.
“I prefer to look at it from another lens. Sport in New England – the Celtics, the Red Sox, the Patriots – they’re all winners. We’ve got a rugby time that wants to make it four in four.
“I’m hugely excited by it. I love these dynasty places. They really attract me. It resonates with me. I’m really looking forward to that challenge.”