Brian McClennan appointed as Head Coach of New Zealand Warriors in NRL
Brian McClennan, the former Leeds Head Coach, has been confirmed by New Zealand (NZ) Warriors on August 1 as Ivan Cleary's replacemnt. McClennan will be taking over as coach from the next season of National Rugby League (NRL) competition onwards.
McClennan’s two-year contract with the Warriors will expire by the end of the 2013 NRL season. He is returning to New Zealand after stepping down from Super League franchise almost one and a half year ago. His international records issplendid and this is
going to be his very first experience in the Australian NRL competition.
The 49-year-old has no past experience of coaching a NRL outfit but his accomplishments in Super Rugby League are plenty. He boasts the opportunity of coaching a Kiwi squad to their win in the Tri-Nations Series in 2005.The trail of his accomplishments does
not end there, he also coached the Leeds during the Super League season of 2008 and 2009 and led them to be the title holders for two consecutive years.
He is presently holding the office for the Auckland Rugby League as their Football Development Manager and recently he also swept Exiles under his coaching to a victory against the English squad this June.
McClennan is very content and is bent on making the most out of this opportunity to coach the NRL outfit. While discussing the significance of this prospect, he labelled it as “a huge moment” for himself and also stressed upon giving the departing coach,
Cleary the due credit for the remainder of the season.
While commenting on this well sought after opportunity, the coach stated, “I've been fortunate enough to coach the Kiwis, Leeds and Auckland club sides but my ambition always was to one day coach in the NRL, the toughest competition there is. To have that
chance from next year is brilliant and to be able to achieve it with the Vodafone Warriors in my home town couldn't be better.”
The freshly appointed coach appreciated his newly joined club, Warriors who sit on the sixth spot within the NRL ladder and have bagged four straight wins. He values their growth as performers in NRL which makes them worthy of being labeled as one of the
best-run NRL franchises.
According to Wayne Scurrah, the chief executive of the franchise, McClennan is the perfect pick for this office as there were many from within the club and outside who were hoping to assume the responsibility for that position.
Despite the available alternatives for this office, Scurrah reckons that McClennan’s addition will be advantageous for the club. He further added that the Warriors are want to benefit from the coach whose contributions to New Zealand rugby League are unmatched
which duly justifies his pick as the coach for the next two seasons.
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