15 Jan 2015

Sport: Manu Samoa assistant confirms UK move

8:27 am on 15 January 2015

The Chiefs and Manu Samoa assistant coach Tom Coventry has confirmed he will take charge of English side London Irish at the end of the 2015 Super Rugby season.

The Chiefs CEO Andrew Flexman says the franchise is fully supportive of Coventry's desire to progress his career overseas but are disappointed to be losing the services of a talented coach.

The Chiefs Head Coach Dave Rennie believes that the move will be good for Coventry and says he's been a big part of their success, bringing a physical edge to their forward play.

Coventry says he wants to stay fresh as a coach by immersing himself in a new environment and says his role with Samoa means he's in for a busy season ahead.

"Well at the moment my role is to be involved with Samoa at the World Cup so that's challenging because the pre-season for London Irish begins as the World Cup comes to an end so you'd like to be boots in right from the start. We've got all that to work through but there's some timings where I can be around the club and being involved in the pre-season and getting things started so that will be one of the challenges of the first year but I also enjoy my role with Manu Samoa so I've got a bit of a juggling acts on my hands, haven't I?"