Leinster recruit former Munster fly-half Tyler Bleyendaal
Former Munster fly-half Tyler Bleyendaal has agreed to join Leinster's coaching staff for the 2024/25 season.
The 33-year-old played 62 games for Leinster's arch-rivals Munster before a neck injury forced him into an early retirement in 2020.
He has worked as an assistant coach at Super Rugby Pacific leaders Hurricanes in his native New Zealand since retiring, and also served under Toutai Kefu with Tonga at the World Cup last year.
The former New Zealand U20 No10 will fill the void left by Andrew Goodman in the Leinster coaching team, who will join Andy Farrell's Ireland coaching set-up at the end of the season. Goodman is replacing backs coach Mike Catt, who will leave his role after Ireland's tour of South Africa in July.
Bleyendaal will be followed by Hurricanes centre Jordie Barrett to Dublin, who will make the move to the United Rugby Championship in December.
“I’d like to thank Hurricanes CEO Avan Lee, Clark and the coaching team as well as all of the players and staff involved at the Hurricanes for a brilliant few years," Bleyendaal said to leinsterrugby.ie.
"I am very grateful for the opportunity they gave me as a young coach and the experiences we have shared together since then.
“The opportunity to test myself in another environment and in another competition was one that I was very keen to explore, and I am equally grateful to Leo Cullen for the chance to continue my growth as a coach. I am looking forward to joining Leinster Rugby ahead of next season and my family and I are very excited for the adventure ahead in a country that we hold dear.”
Leinster head coach Leo Cullen added: “With Andrew taking up a position with the Ireland coaching group, we’ve had an opportunity not only to look at our own coaching structures here at Leinster but also to talk to a number of other coaches. Having gone through that process, we believe we are getting a really smart rugby mind in Tyler Bleyendaal.
“Tyler has been with the Hurricanes for the last few seasons and has been steadily growing as a coach – you can see that in the way they’re playing now, not just their results but specifically in terms of some of the stats around their attack.
"He’s someone who knows Ireland well and understands the rugby landscape here which is important, but ultimately, we are keen for him add to our environment and for us to learn from him, which is our approach with all new coaches.
“We wish Tyler well for the rest of the Super Rugby season and look forward to welcoming him and his family to Leinster during the summer.”
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Irish people about the best damn people on the planet. OK, in the NH. Fijians are the World’s best happiest friendliest people. But as far as European cultures producing good people, Ireland stands alone. But on the rugby pitch there is a creeping arrogance that has detached from humility. eg Sexton abusing a match referee, and not for the 1st time. He was extremely lucky to make it to the RWC, strings were pulled. And O’Mahoneys sledge to Cane was lowballing, attacking an opposition Captain seems opportunistic and gutter talk. Cane is a real gentleman. Have never seen ABs unleash after the whistle like they did on O’Mahoney after QterF, it was well deserved. Unlike Bok supporters, the Bok players understand history. Massive amount of respect between Boks and ABs is evident, they get on well and have throughout history. Even Pinetree Meads best mate (except his old cobber Kel Tremain) were Springboks, friendships forged after tours. And Meads was always targetted given his star status (he even played 2 x Tests with a broken arm). On the contrary, ABs and Wallabies famously dont get on, bad blood after Aussies not taking offer of beersies postmatch.
Go to commentsHaha god NZ journalism is so crap listen to this guy “We’ll be proven in a few weeks if our baseless bs can stick” lol Everywhere else uses experts to write stuff but here they’re just career guys that don’t care about what they write, NOT CONCEDED A TRY IN YEARS lol > “Naturally, you’re looking for performance, sometimes that means you can’t think logically or use evidence to arrive at any sort of clarity of decision. Pretty much sums it up to a tee Paul ignores the articles in here about then runs off each team this year, that Penney is just a yearly stop gap until, who, Ellison is released by ABs, the huge imbalance of the injury front between teams at each end of the table, or who it was that _should_ have been coach. But of course if they actually do evidence and investigative work theyre shy of their article not hitting that sensationalism boundary and lose revenue. Leaving us non the wiser. They look like they would have been best with a geeup coach this year to turn around the razorless depression the clubs obviously going through. Hard to think of someone fitting the Bill to have been chosen instead, the clown Cheika? Id have been tempted to double play and entice O’Gara down. Hell maybe that is who they are waiting for, he wants a international gig and it could be after Scmidt or razor
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