{"id":440407,"date":"2026-01-27T09:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T09:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/440407\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T09:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T09:32:08","slug":"vern-cotter-to-succeed-les-kiss-as-reds-head-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/440407\/","title":{"rendered":"Vern Cotter to succeed Les Kiss as Reds head coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vern Cotter ruled himself out of contention Tuesday to be the new All Blacks coach when he was announced as successor to the departing Les Kiss at the Queensland Reds.<\/p>\n

Former Scotland<\/a> and Fiji<\/a> coach Cotter will replace Kiss when he leaves to take over from Joe Schmidt in July as Wallabies<\/a> boss following one final Super Rugby campaign.<\/p>\n

The 64-year-old Cotter, who currently coaches the Auckland Blues<\/a>, was seen as a potential replacement for Scott Robertson after he was fired as New Zealand coach this month.<\/p>\n

“When I was contacted about the (Reds<\/a>) position, I was chuffed and proud. Australian rugby and Australian sport fascinates me,” said New Zealander Cotter, who has signed a two-year contract.<\/p>\n

“To work in that culture excites me and when the Queensland Rugby Union laid out their plans for the Reds, it was compelling.<\/p>\n

“I did my homework. The Queensland mindset is strong.<\/p>\n

“I pride myself on always looking to improve myself as a coach and I certainly feel this can make me a better coach.”<\/p>\n

Cotter’s pedigree across 24 years as a coach includes two trophy-winning campaigns with the Blues in 2024 and Clermont-Auvergne<\/a> in the French Top 14 (2009-10).<\/p>\n

He also spent six years in the unrelenting environment of Test rugby, taking Scotland to the Rugby World Cup in 2015 and coaching Fiji for three years.<\/p>\n

“What stood out immediately to us was Vern’s character and how strongly he aligns with the values that define us as an organisation,” said QRU chief David Hanham.<\/p>\n

“His record of sustained success speaks for itself.”<\/p>\n

The Super Rugby season starts next month with Cotter remaining at the Blues until he takes over the Reds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vern Cotter ruled himself out of contention Tuesday to be the new All Blacks coach when he was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-440407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}