Three-time Major League Rugby (MLR) champions the New England Free Jacks have recruited the highly rated Pingi Tala\u2019apitaga to join their coaching staff.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s storied National Provincial Championship (NPC) with the Bay of Plenty.<\/p>\n
His talents have even seen the 38-year-old coach the Women\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
He will join Ryan Martin\u2019s coaching staff ahead of the 2026 MLR<\/a> season as the team strive to win North America\u2019s professional men\u2019s rugby competition for a fourth season running.<\/p>\n Learnt from the best<\/p>\n Calling time on his playing career after two seasons with Pro D2 club Soyaux Angoul\u00eame XV Charente, he returned straight home to New Zealand to put over two decades of learning to the test.<\/p>\n Over the course of his career Tala\u2019apitaga had been under the tutelage of Jamie Joseph, Tony Brown, Wayne Smith, Dave Rennie and incoming Munster boss Clayton McMillan.<\/p>\n In the years after his retirement the Samoa-born coach took on any opportunity presented to him.<\/p>\n From coaching club rugby with Tauranga Sports Rugby Club to the youth ranks of the Chiefs, he took it on wholeheartedly. And excelled.<\/p>\n Following three years as the Bay of Plenty\u2019s development team\u2019s forwards and head coach, Tala\u2019apitaga was promoted to the NPC squad.<\/p>\n At the end of his first season with the Steamers the stats in defence spoke for themselves.<\/p>\n The team produced the most dominant tackles in the competition with 88, conceded the third-least tries in the competition and won 104 turnovers.<\/p>\n In the years that followed, Plenty continued to impress with their aggressive work without the ball.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always had a philosophy that physicality is the first pillar that you need to be successful in rugby,\u201d Tala\u2019apitaga said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you don\u2019t have physicality there aren\u2019t many competitions you can actually win.<\/p>\n Louis Rees-Zammit had the \u2018ability\u2019 to play NFL but not the \u2018mentality\u2019 according to ex-England star<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cUnderstanding that as a key pillar, I then shape out systems and structures around that, such as how we win collisions.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is really important to the way I work, and I\u2019m always trying to push the boundaries and understand the laws of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n There is also a special place for the scrum in Tala\u2019apitaga\u2019s heart. For well over a decade he lived on a crouch, bind and set diet, and propping against some of the world\u2019s best looseheads.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n To coach his players, Tala\u2019apitaga 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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 \u2013 12 of which came within three phases of possession.<\/p>\n In 2023, the Steamers\u2019 scrum had the second highest level of retention (96.4 per cent) as the side went out at the NPC\u2019s quarter-final stage against Hawke\u2019s Bay.<\/p>\n As Tala\u2019apitaga\u2019s reputation has grown so has the number of promising youngsters sent his way.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Both the Highlanders\u2019 Josh Bartlett and Hurricanes\u2019 Tevita Mafileo have also benefited from Tala\u2019apitaga\u2019s tutelage and could well be in the All Blacks mix by the time the Rugby World Cup hits Australia in 2027.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thing I\u2019m most proud of is the amount of professional front-rowers I\u2019ve produced in my short amount of time,\u201d the prop whisperer said.<\/p>\n