Exciting times lie ahead for Fiji rugby fans as we await what Coach, Mick Byrne has in store for the Fiji Water Flying Fijians with his multiple coaching skills.
Having played a few sports and coaching multiple teams has helped shape Byrne to be exposed to different coaching styles, and according to him, it sort of shaped the way he looks at the games, as well as the way he looks at rugby.
While speaking on fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan, the 66-year-old who now says that he is from his adopted village, Sikituru in Nadi, Byrne says there certainly have been lots of teams and he always lives by his dad's words of not wanting to die wondering which motivates him every time.
Byrne was the first coach for the Swire Shipping Fijian Drua when the club played in their first Shop N Save Super Rugby Pacific competition before resigning last year to take up the coaching role for the Flying Fijians.
He played Aussie Rules and was nicknamed “Mick the Kick” because of his accurate goal-kicking, he played for Melbourne, Hawthorn, and Sydney Swans, and he was also selected to represent NSW.
Byrne played a total of 167 league games and kicked 150 goals.
In his coaching career, Byrne has coached clubs like the Saracens, the Auckland Blues, and the Fijian Drua, and international teams like Scotland, the All Blacks, Japan, the Wallabies, the Canada Women’s 7s, and now the Flying Fijians.
He says he played 11 years of rugby league and 7 years of rugby.
He adds he was fascinated by learning things as a schoolboy, and when he played sports, he wanted to learn how to do things well.
Byrne says playing rugby league and Aussie rules helped him so much and he felt that he could bring the techniques used in those two sports into the game of rugby.
He says he felt it could change the way they attack and all those little things.
Byrne adds that the one thing that he did feel that rugby could benefit from was just a real kick pass, the low kick passing game in Aussie rules, and being able to kick the ball 30 and 40 metres, but low and hard so you can beat players.
He says there are a lot of other things that crossed over, but having that sort of skillset to come into rugby initially was a good window for him to come in and cut his teeth back in rugby in the coaching game and have a look around and learn from coaches.
Meanwhile, the Flying Fijians will play the Wallabies on the 6th of July in Newcastle, Australia.
They then take on Scotland on 12th July at the HFC Stadium in Suva.
Stay tuned for the latest news on our radio stations
