Robbie Deans – Coach Profile
Robert Maxwell Deans, more popularly known as Robbie Deans, has been a player for the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) as part of his rugby career and is now Head Coach for the Wallabies of Australia.
Deans was born in September 1959 in Cheviot, New Zealand. His graduate days in Christchurch at Christ's College had him playing rugby at the position of first five-eighth. His great-uncle, his father, and his brother have all been part of the rugby world,
with histories of both playing in and coaching rugby teams like the All Blacks and the Canterbury.
His official rugby career started in 1979 for the Canterbury Rugby Union. Initially, Deans was signed on to play at fly-half and then later on became a full-back for the rest of his career. While playing for the Canterbury union he was capped 146 times,
accumulating a total score of 1,641. Deans also played for New Zealand’s national team, the All Blacks. His All Blacks stint of two years, starting with a match against Edinburgh in October 1983, saw him capped five times and accumulating 50 points in the
process.
His official coaching career with the NZRU started in 1997. He led his team at Canterbury to a win against Auckland in the National Provincial Championship (NPC) tournament. This particular title was the first successful win for Canterbury in about 14 years.
In 1998, he joined the Crusaders team as a manager and won his first ever Super Rugby title under the tutelage of the team’s coach, Wayne Smith. In 1998, the Super Rugby winners were once again the Crusaders under Dean’s management and Smith’s coaching.
When in 2000, Wayne Smith left the Crusaders to coach the All Blacks, Dean signed on to coach the Crusaders. He once again led the team to victory in the Super 12 of 2000 through a win over the Brumbies. The Ranfurly Shield of 2000 was also won by the Crusaders.
They however failed to win the NPC 2000, during the NPC final against Wellington.
In the Super 12 of 2001, Dean’s team failed to perform well and the Crusaders ended up at number 10 on the tournament’s tables. On the other hand Deans also joined at the post of the assistant coach for the All Blacks during the 2001 season. John Mitchell,
the All Blacks coach and Deans led the All Blacks to victories in the Tri-Nations of 2002 and 2003. Dean was also part of the win for the All Blacks in the Bledisloe Cup of 2003.
Once again the Super 12 of 2002 was a win for the Crusaders. However, the next two years were unsuccessful for the team followed by wins in Super 12 of 2005 and 2006. Deans win in the Super 12 of 2008 marked him as having the most triumphant Super Rugby
coaching history, as he had a total of five titles with the Crusaders.
To be or not to be the coach for Canterbury Union was the question for the Crusaders coach after he led them to victory in 2008. He decided to end his coaching career with New Zealand in 2008 by joining a four year contract with Australia as head coach.
The Wallabies benefited from the guidance of Dean, and won spectacularly against the French and the Irish teams. He once again showed his coaching calibre during the Tri-Nations series tests by defeating the NZRU’s All Blacks and the South African union’s
Springboks. Australia had been victorious against the Springboks after eight years.
The highly successful coach, Robbie Deans, has won the New Zealand Rugby Coach of the Year award of the year 2002 and also has won the Sir Richard Hadlee Sports Trust's Canterbury Coach of the Year award many times over. To commemorate his coaching years
with the Crusaders, a Deans Stand will be named at the AMI Stadium.
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