Latest News

IRANZ appoints General Manager - Steve McHardy

IRANZ
13 October 2005

The International Rugby Academy continues to go from strength to strength, and today Managing Director Murray Mexted has announced the appointment of Steve McHardy as he expands his management team.

“We could hardly have imagined a better qualified candidate to further our contribution to New Zealand rugby, so I have real pleasure in announcing the addition of Steve McHardy as General Manager of the International Rugby Academy of New Zealand effective from December 5th."

Mexted believes, “Steve has an ideal pedigree for the job, having an extensive background in coaching, high performance management and rugby administration, combined with his recent experience in the business world.”

“One of Steve’s major roles will be to continue to build our relationship with New Zealand provincial unions, as we work to identify and develop the amazing array of raw rugby talent this country produces. Our provincial client base is growing as unions see the benefits of having their best talent upskilled by the world-class specialist coaching that we alone offer. IRANZ graduates are playing for 14 different provincial sides in this year’s NPC.”

Steve is already well-known and respected in New Zealand rugby circles - having worked with the Auckland Rugby Union as a Player Development and Regional Coaching Manager, as well as holding coaching roles with their representative teams including the Colts and Development side between 1993 and 1999.

In 1999 Steve was hired by the NZRU as a National Rugby Development Officer in a role that included working with NZRU coaches, academy players and age-grade representative teams. Between 1994 and 2001 he worked as a facilitator on the NZRU Massey Practicum courses and also assisted as a facilitator on coaching courses in the Asia/Pacific region for the International Rugby Board.

Steve completed his Bachelor of Business Studies at Massey University in 2002 and changed his career path by moving into a position as a business manager in the highly competitive food industry. He continued his rugby involvement by playing a major role in helping develop the first IRANZ High Performance player’s course in that same year and facilitated the first two courses.

With McHardy taking over the day-to-day running of IRANZ and concentrating on servicing the needs of the provinces, Mexted is going to turn his full attention to building the scholarship programme which will provide both IRANZ and New Zealand rugby with an additional talent identification source. Mexted will also continue to look after the growing list of clients from Premiership clubs in the United Kingdom and Super 12 franchises in all three SANZAR countries, which provide a cosmopolitan mix – part of the unique competitive environment on IRANZ courses.

Mexted says, “McHardy’s appointment underlines our commitment and belief that IRANZ will play a long-term and valuable role in New Zealand rugby’s collective pursuit of excellence.”