{"id":545723,"date":"2026-07-27T05:51:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T05:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/545723\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T05:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T05:51:11","slug":"former-all-blacks-crusaders-assistant-to-coach-fijian-drua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/545723\/","title":{"rendered":"Former All Blacks, Crusaders assistant to coach Fijian Drua"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crusaders assistant coach and ex-All Blacks assistant Brad Mooar has taken on the head coach role for the Fijian Drua ahead of the 2027 Super Rugby Pacific campaign.<\/p>\n

In a statement released by Mooar and the Crusaders, he said he would continue to support the Kiwi team from afar.<\/p>\n

“The relationships I’ve built here won’t change, and I look forward to watching the Crusaders continue to thrive while staying connected to the club in the years ahead.”<\/p>\n

Crusaders chief executive Colin Mansbridge echoed the fond sentiment by wishing Mooar and the Druar well. <\/p>\n

\"Crusaders<\/p>\n

Crusaders play the Drua in April 2026. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

Mooar spent six non-consecutive seasons with the Crusaders, winning four championships with the team.<\/p>\n

He rejoined the Crusaders before the 2025 season, having lost his assistant role<\/a> with the All Blacks in 2022. <\/p>\n

He likely applied for the club’s head coaching role once Rob Penney confirmed his departure. The job went to Scott Hansen<\/a>. <\/p>\n

This isn’t Mooar’s first foray into overseas coaching, having previously worked in South Africa, Wales and Scotland. <\/p>\n

Mooar will stay with the Crusaders in the coming weeks until transition plans have been worked through and a replacement found. <\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including Winston Peters addresses the Stuart Nash saga, and what Sydney Sweeney\u2019s up to in Queenstown. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crusaders assistant coach and ex-All Blacks assistant Brad Mooar has taken on the head coach role for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[789,56380,111,139,69,6430,213],"class_list":["post-545723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-all-blacks","tag-crusaders","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pacific-islands","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}