Jackson joins the Legion following his tenure at the helm of the Fijian Drua in Super Rugby Pacific, bringing a remarkable breadth of experience across the professional game as an\u00a0elite player, international referee and coach.<\/p>\n
The New Zealander has built one of the most unique r\u00e9sum\u00e9s in world rugby, having\u00a0experienced the game at its highest levels from virtually every perspective.<\/p>\n
As a player, Jackson enjoyed a distinguished career at fly-half, making 60 Super Rugby\u00a0appearances for the Chiefs before moving to England, where he became a standout for\u00a0Saracens. He made 130 appearances for the London club and scored more than 1,500\u00a0points across all competitions, while also representing the M\u0101ori All Blacks and\u00a0Barbarians.<\/p>\n
Following his retirement from professional rugby in 2010, Jackson made the rare transition\u00a0into professional refereeing and quickly established himself among the leading officials in\u00a0the international game.<\/p>\n
Over a decade with the whistle, Jackson refereed 32 Test matches, 88 Super Rugby\u00a0matches as well as Six Nations, Rugby Championship, and 2015 Rugby World Cup, while he was entrusted with one of the biggest assignments in Southern Hemisphere rugby when he\u00a0refereed the 2016 Super Rugby Final between the Hurricanes and Lions in Wellington.<\/p>\n
Jackson was named New Zealand Referee of the Year five times and became the first New\u00a0Zealander to both play and referee 100 first-class matches \u2014 a milestone that underlined\u00a0his extraordinary journey through the professional game.<\/p>\n
Following his refereeing career, Jackson transitioned into coaching, joining Fiji under Vern\u00a0Cotter before becoming part of the Fijian Drua program in Super Rugby Pacific and\u00a0ultimately taking over as Head Coach.<\/p>\n
California Legion CEO Adam Freier said Jackson\u2019s experience, rugby intelligence and\u00a0leadership made him an outstanding fit for the next stage of the club\u2019s development.<\/p>\n
\u201cGlen has one of the most unique rugby r\u00e9sum\u00e9s anywhere in the world and brings an\u00a0enormous amount of experience to California.\u201cHe has played the game professionally at the highest level, refereed some of the biggest\u00a0matches in world rugby and then successfully transitioned into international and Super\u00a0Rugby coaching.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat refereeing background in particular gives Glen a perspective very few coaches have.<\/p>\n
His understanding of the laws, discipline, decision-making and how the modern game is\u00a0officiated is an enormous asset for our players and our program.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore importantly, he is an outstanding rugby person and leader who understands how to\u00a0build an environment where players can perform.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter reaching the MLR Final in our first season as California Legion, we want to continue\u00a0raising the standard of everything we do. Glen\u2019s appointment is another significant step in\u00a0that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jackson said he was excited by the opportunity to lead the Legion and the potential he sees\u00a0for professional rugby in California.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m incredibly excited to be joining California Legion and to have the opportunity to lead\u00a0the club into the 2027 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been fortunate that rugby has allowed me to experience the game from a number of\u00a0different perspectives \u2014 as a player, referee and coach \u2014 and you learn something different from each of those environments.<\/p>\n
\u201cCalifornia as a Rugby state has enormous potential. There is a strong rugby community, an\u00a0incredible athlete and player base, and a market that has the ability to become genuinely significant for the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the organization achieved in 2026, bringing rugby communities across California\u00a0together and reaching the MLR Final in its first season, provides a great platform.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to working with the players, coaches and staff and becoming part of the rugby community across California. We want to play rugby that people enjoy watching,\u00a0develop players, and ultimately compete for championships.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jackson will oversee the Legion\u2019s high-performance program and work alongside the club\u2019s\u00a0existing coaching and rugby operations staff as preparations accelerate for the 2027 season. His appointment also reflects California Legion\u2019s ambition to continue strengthening its\u00a0connections across the global rugby landscape, particularly between the United States,\u00a0New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Japan and the Pacific.<\/p>\n
Following a breakthrough inaugural campaign that culminated in an appearance in the MLR\u00a0Championship Final, California Legion enters next season. determined to take the next\u00a0step, with the season to begin March 2027.<\/p>\n
Further announcements regarding the Legion\u2019s 2027 coaching staff, player roster and\u00a0preseason schedule will be made in the coming weeks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jackson joins the Legion following his tenure at the helm of the Fijian Drua in Super Rugby Pacific,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-470323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}