{"id":142299,"date":"2025-09-17T00:17:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T00:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/142299\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T00:17:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T00:17:17","slug":"ex-all-black-brad-thorn-lands-test-job-with-european-minnows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/142299\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-All Black Brad Thorn lands Test job with European minnows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/reds\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Reds<\/a> head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/brad-thorn\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brad Thorn<\/a> has been named the new forwards and strength and conditioning coach of Malta. <\/p>\n<p>The World Cup-winning All Black left his role with the Reds in 2023, and has worked under former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/samoa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Samoa<\/a> international <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/dan-leo\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dan Leo<\/a> at Brisbane Boys\u2019 College since then. <\/p>\n<p>The dual code legend will now move into the Test arena, working with head coach Dr Phil Pretorius with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/malta\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Malta<\/a> side currently ranked 51st in the world.<\/p>\n<p>Malta will become the latest role in a storied career for the former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/bulls\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bulls<\/a> boss Pretorius which has seen him coach Tonga, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/czech-republic\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Czech Republic<\/a> and the Cayman Islands. <\/p>\n<p>The new coaching team will be completed by former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/spain\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Spain<\/a> international Jaike Carter, who is the current head coach of Malta Sevens, who recently won bronze in the Games of the Small States of Europe.<\/p>\n<p>A statement from the Malta Rugby Football Union on Instagram reads: \u201cThe Malta Rugby Football Union is proud to announce a new National Coaching Team, led by Dr Phil Pretorius as Head Coach. With nearly 30 years of coaching experience across four international sides, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/tonga\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tonga<\/a> and the Czech Republic, as well as over 200 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/currie-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Currie Cup<\/a> games, Phil brings proven leadership and a track record of transforming teams on the world stage. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is joined by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/brad-thorn\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brad Thorn<\/a>, World Cup winner and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/new-zealand\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">All Blacks<\/a> legend with over 20 years at the very top, as Forwards and S&amp;C Coach, and Jaike Carter, former international Sevens player in the World Series and current Malta Sevens Head Coach who recently guided Malta to bronze at the 2025 GSSE, as Backs Coach. Together, this world-class coaching team is ready to take Maltese rugby to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Malta\u2019s most recent outing came against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/israel\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Israel<\/a> in April, where a 16-15 defeat snapped their six-match winning streak which dated back to October 2022, where they were defeated 23-14 by Bulgaria. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Reds head coach Brad Thorn has been named the new forwards and strength and conditioning coach of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-142299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}