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Greig Laidlaw lands top job in Japan
By Jon Newcombe
Former Scotland international Greig Laidlaw has been appointed head coach of newly-promoted Japanese outfit Urayasu D-Rocks for the upcoming 2024/25 season.
Laidlaw was assistant coach to Johan Ackermann last season when the D-Rocks clinched promotion to the First Division of Japan's League One after a 35-30 play-off victory against Hanazono Kintetsu Liners back in May.
Ackermann's desire to return to South Africa has long been mooted but only last month he said in an interview with SA Rugby Mag that he was going to honour the final year of his three-year contract at D-Rocks.
However, Laidlaw will be the man leading them forward when they take their place amongst the elute of Japanese club rugby next season.
The 38-year-old has been in Japan since 2020 and spent three seasons playing for D-Rocks, while they were known as NTT Communications Shining Arcs, before calling time on his stellar career in April 2023.
Laidlaw captained Scotland 39 times, a record for a men’s player, and scored 714 international points in 76 appearances, which puts him second behind Chris Paterson on the all-time Scotland list.
After just one season of coaching, Laidlaw now has the chance to stamp his own mark on how the D-Rocks play, and the former scrum-half is promising an entertaining brand of rugby in tune with the Japanese way.
He said: “This season, we are setting out a new vision: to play a smart, innovative, and exciting brand of rugby. We want to showcase a style of play that is not only strategic but also exhilarating for our fans”
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Latest Comments
No because if it was a 1:1 correspondence it would have been 10 top14, 3 URC and 3 Prem. I did arbitrarily put a max limit per league at 8 because for me if half of the teams are from the top14 it will make no sense. I genuinely didn't think the discussion will go that way tbh as for me it is a details.
Go to commentsFoster should never have been appointed, and I never liked him as a coach, but the hysteria over his coaching and Sam Cane as a player was grounded in prejudice rather than fact.
The New Zealand Rugby public were blinded by their dislike of Foster to the point of idiocy.
Anything the All Blacks did that was good was attributed to Ryan and Schmidt and Fozzie had nothing to do with it.
Any losses were solely blamed on Foster and Cane.
Foster did develop new talent and kept all the main trophies except the World Cup.
His successor kept the core of his team as well as picking Cane despite him leaving for overseas because he saw the irreplaceable value in him.
Razor will take the ABs to the next level, I have full confidence in that.
He should have been appointed in 2020.
But he wasn’t. And the guy who was has never been treated fairly.
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