Sir Steve Hansen, the coach who led the All Blacks to the 2015 Rugby World Cup title, has joined the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles as the NRL club’s football performance director.
Manly announced the appointment on Friday, less than a week after its season ended with a one-point loss to the Warriors in Auckland that left it just outside the finals. The club said the move showed it had immediately turned its focus to building a stronger football programme for 2027.
Hansen, 67, will work closely with head coach Kieran Foran, chief executive Jason King and the club’s football department. The club’s announcement did not say how long the appointment runs or when Hansen starts. The news was also carried in New Zealand by 1News.
Foran, a New Zealander and a premiership winner as a Manly player, welcomed the signing in the club’s statement.
“To have someone of Steve Hansen’s experience, knowledge and proven record of building winning cultures joining our football department is a massive opportunity for this Club,” Foran said. “I have enormous respect for Steve and what he has achieved. He is one of the greatest sporting minds of his generation, and I am incredibly excited to work with him and learn from him.”
Hansen said he was excited to join a club with a proud history and to work alongside Foran.
“I’m really excited to be joining the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles and to be part of a Club that is steeped in history, success and a strong sporting identity,” he said. “There is a lot to like about what Manly is building, and I’m particularly looking forward to working with Kieran and CEO Jason King.”
It is not Hansen’s first job in rugby league. In October 2020 the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs signed him as a high performance consultant for the 2021 NRL season. That role had him working with the coaching and management staff and the players’ leadership group under head coach Trent Barrett. The Manly job puts him inside the football department of a club that has had an eventful year.
Manly began 2026 under Anthony Seibold, who was sacked on 27 March after the side failed to win its first three games. Foran, who had only recently been appointed as an assistant coach, took over as interim coach the following day. The results turned quickly. By the start of June the Sea Eagles had won seven of nine matches under him and sat fifth on the ladder, and the club gave him the job through to the end of the 2029 season.
The rest of the year was much harder. Manly finished ninth with 11 wins and 13 losses, one place outside the top eight, and missed the finals for a second straight season. Those figures mean the side won only four of its last 12 games after Foran was confirmed in the job. The last chance went on 5 September at Go Media Stadium in Auckland, where fullback Taine Tuaupiki scored a hat-trick as the Warriors won 31-30.
Foran said the appointment showed the club was determined to act straight after the 2026 season.
“We don’t want to simply talk about getting better, we want to put the right people and structures in place to make it happen,” Foran said. “Steve brings an incredible level of experience and insight, and I know he will challenge all of us to think bigger, raise our standards and become better.”
Hansen’s rugby record is the reason Manly went looking for him. Born in Mosgiel, he spent six years in the police and played 21 first-class games at centre for Canterbury before coaching the province from 1996 to 2001. He coached Wales from 2002 to 2004, then spent eight years as an All Blacks assistant coach under Graham Henry, a spell that ended with the 2011 World Cup final win over France. He took over as head coach in 2012.
In 107 Tests with Hansen in charge, the All Blacks won 93, drew four and lost only 10, a winning rate Manly puts at 87 per cent. In 2015 they became the first team to retain the Webb Ellis Cup, and the first All Blacks side to win a World Cup outside New Zealand. Hansen was named world rugby’s coach of the year four times, in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016, and he was knighted in the 2020 New Year Honours after stepping down at the end of the 2019 World Cup.
Since leaving the All Blacks, Manly said, he has focused on strategic leadership, mentoring and high-performance development, including roles in Japanese rugby.
The Hansen name is busy on both sides of the world this weekend. His daughter, Whitney Hansen, was named Black Ferns head coach last December on a two-year deal, and her side plays France in Lyon with kick-off at 3.45am on Sunday, New Zealand time, RNZ reports.
The Warriors, the side that ended Manly’s season, are still going. They host the Dolphins in a qualifying final at Go Media Mt Smart Stadium on Saturday night, and the winner goes straight through to the preliminary finals with a week off.
Can one of rugby union’s most successful coaches help turn Manly into a finals side again? Tell us what you think Steve Hansen will bring to the Sea Eagles in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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