Former Munster player and current Hurricanes head coach Jason Holland joined Joe Molloy on Wednesday Night Rugby to discuss his time at Munster and development as a coach.
“We went for six or nine months and ended up there for 13 or 14 years,” Holland said about his time in Ireland.
Midleton was home for the New Zealander - "[it] was a great place, great people and I still stay connected,” he said.
The 47-year-old made 102 appearances for Munster between 1999 and 2008.
Holland reminisced about a try he scored over 20 years ago in a famous victory over Toulouse in Bordeaux.
“They are still some of the best moments of my footy career. The atmosphere in Bordeaux that day was unbelievable.”
“Something I take out of all those years is that it’s important to be good mates and have a bit of fun along the way. We definitely did that, probably a bit too much fun at times,” Holland said.
Jason Holland
The former centre started his coaching career at Munster in 2008. He then returned to New Zealand in 2012 and worked as an assistant at Canterbury before moving onto the Hurricanes.
In December 2019, Holland became head coach of the Wellington-based club as a result of John Plumtree’s move to work for New Zealand.
“I’ve always been interested in what goes on in the game, how different teams defend, how teams get line breaks and how teams score tries,” Holland said when asked about his passion for coaching.
Holland’s Canes have lost their first two games in Super Rugby Aotearoa, a new competition as a result of the COVID crisis. It involves the five New Zealand based Super Rugby teams playing each other in a double round-robin format.
“It’s a bit of a privilege to be back into a bit of normality,” Holland said.
“The competition is pretty special, there are no knock-off weekends so it will be pretty brutal but that's what you want.”
The Hurricanes play the Chiefs on the weekend, with both teams hoping to record their first wins of the competition.
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