John Tabaiwalu Fakavale Matson (born 14 May 1973) is a New Zealand

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

coach and a former New Zealand and Fiji rugby union representative.

Education

Matson attended

Nelson College Nelson College is the oldest state secondary school in New Zealand. It is an all-boys school in the City of Nelson that teaches from years 9 to 13. In addition, it runs a private preparatory school for year 7 and 8 boys. The school also has ...

from 1985 to 1986, before completing his secondary education at Christ's College in Christchurch.

Playing career

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

, Matson represented

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

at a provincial level and the in

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

. He was a member of the New Zealand national side, the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987 ...

, in 1995 and 1996, playing 10 matches but no internationals. He played two matches for

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

at the

1999 Rugby World Cup The 1999 Rugby World Cup was the fourth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial international rugby union championship. It was principally hosted by Wales, and was won by Australia. This was the first Rugby World Cup to be held in the sport's professi ...

Coaching career

Matson formally played and coached

Yamaha Júbilo Shizuoka Blue Revs (formerly the Yamaha Júbilo) are a rugby union team based in Iwata, Shizuoka, Japan. The team came second behind Toshiba Brave Lupus in the second season of Japanese rugby's Top League (2004–05). They were coached by former A ...

in his final 3 seasons for the club. He went on to become assistant coach and player at the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

before becoming head coach of the

Gold Coast Breakers The Bond University Rugby Club is an Australian rugby union football club that competes in the Queensland Premier Rugby competition. The club is based at the Bond University campus on Queensland's Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast. Bond Univer ...

in 2007. In 2009 he help to reinvigorate the oldest Senior club on the gold coast as the Director of Rugby and Head coach of the 1st Grade Team they went on to win the Club Championships (in his absence as he joined Canterbury as an assistant near the end of the season). He returned to New Zealand in 2009 acting as

assistant coach, before promoting up to head coach in 2012. He led Canterbury to their fifth consecutive

ITM Cup ITM may stand for: Education * ITM Global School, an English medium co-educational day school in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India * ITM Law School, one of the professional graduate schools of ITM University * ITM-IFM, Mumbai, India * Institut Tekn ...

title by winning the

2012 ITM Cup 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

which set potentially an unbeaten run of victories in arguably the toughest Provincial Rugby Competition in the world. In 2012 he was hired by the Brazil Rugby Federation as a consultant as they began their journey towards the Rio Olympics. He was focused on staging a training camp for the National Men's 15-a-side team and the Women's 7's team. Matson is also the first non-

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

to coach the

Māori All Blacks The Māori All Blacks, previously called the New Zealand Maori, New Zealand Maoris and New Zealand Natives, are a rugby union team from New Zealand. They are a representative team of the New Zealand Rugby Union, and a prerequisite for playing i ...

, assisting Head Coach Colin Cooper since 2013. After Coaching the Māori All Blacks in their test victory against the Flying Fijians in June 2015, he joined Fiji where they went on to win the

Pacific Nations Cup The Pacific Nations Cup is an international rugby union competition held between three Pacific states: Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. The 2019 edition of the tournament will also include the national teams of Canada, Japan and United States. First held ...

in Vancouver, Canada and then onto the

2015 Rugby World Cup The 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was onl ...

. Matson was an assistant coach for the 3 years for the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

in the

competition. He has held both Attack and Defence roles for them during his time and is a specialist backs coach. His departure was announced in September 2020. He joined

Premiership Rugby Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...

side Harlequins as a senior coach ahead of the 2021–22 season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matson, Tabai 1973 births Living people People educated at Nelson College People educated at Christ's College, Christchurch New Zealand rugby union coaches New Zealand rugby union players New Zealand international rugby union players Fiji international rugby union players New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in England