Last week, Richard Kinley and the team at Otago Rugby were very excited to welcome Otago Mitre 10 Cup Assistant Coach, Tom Donnelly, to the line-up.

Tom was born in Rotorua and moved to Otago in 2000 to play rugby and attend Otago University. He began his career at the University of Otago Rugby Club but towards the end of his career, he returned to his country roots, and played for Matakanui Combined.

His talent was quickly recognised as he was selected for the Otago Colts and Otago Under 19’s shortly after his arrival. He moved through the ranks, at pace, making his Otago debut in 2002 and Highlanders debut in 2004. He played for Otago until he left for France in 2013, so it’s fair to say he is well and truly a loyal southern man.

Tom has been in France for the past 3 years where he played for Montpellier and Bayonne. He thoroughly enjoyed the experience and really loved the lifestyle over there however, at the ripe old age of 35, he decided it was time to pull up stumps on his playing career. “I got laughed out of the country due to my lack of ability to speak the language” Tom jokes “it’s probably one of the reasons we decided to head back to the homeland”. He saw the job advertised late last year and given he has always been interested in coaching, he decided to give it a shot. “I saw it as a really good opportunity for me to come back to the region I absolutely love. My wife loves it down here too and this is home for us now”... not surprising, given his mother originated from Dunedin and plenty of his family call Omakau home.

The biggest asset Tom will bring to Otago Rugby is the set piece. With over 17 years’ experience in this area professionally, he has a wealth of knowledge to pass on to the boys. He attended his first training last week where he took the boys through some line out drills. Lee Allan commented “the boys were a lot louder than usual, so I think they are pretty pumped to have old SAS on board”.

When asked about the up-coming season Tom commented “on the back of the pretty fantastic year the boys had in 2016, all we need to do is continue to progress and it will shape up to be another exciting year for Otago Rugby. The draw is very favourable from our point of view, with plenty of afternoon home games however, we are faced with a significant challenge right off the bat. For our first game of the season, we head up to North Harbour, who beat us in the final at home last year, for a bit of a grudge match. Then we take on our old rivals, Canterbury, for the Ranfurly Shield Challenge in Christchurch. In other words, we are planning to come out of the box firing”.

“From what I have seen so far, Otago has a great bunch of young lads and it’s an exciting opportunity for me. I am really looking forward to getting to know the boys and getting stuck in”.