The global rugby career for Golden Lions Super 15 head coach John Mitchell has been a mixture of outstanding achievements as a player and a coach.
As a storming No. 8, he was a centurion with his beloved Waikato province in New Zealand and captain of the All Blacks in six matches on their tour of England and Scotland in 1993. On retirement, his rugby coaching career quickly took off.
During his association with Sale in the UK competition - firstly as player-coach and later as Director of Rugby – his coaching potential caught the attention of England’s Rugby Football Union. This led to his appointment in 1997 as assistant coach to Clive Woodward of the England team for three years. During this period, England were Six Nations and Triple Crown champions and Mitchell’s contribution to the team’s success was pivotal in England claiming the 2003 World Cup trophy.
Returning to New Zealand in 2001, Mitchell was appointed head coach of the Waikato Chiefs in the Super 12 competition. The following year he replaced Wayne Smith as coach of the All Blacks, an appointment that concluded following the 2003 World Cup. He is one of only a handful of New Zealanders who have played for, captained and coached the All Blacks.
During the period Mitchell was in charge of the All Blacks, an undefeated northern hemisphere tour, two back-to-back Tri Nations championships and Bledisloe and Gallagher cup successes underlined his coaching effectiveness.
According to the veteran halfback Justin Marshall the All Blacks “played the best style of rugby in my 10 years as an All Black” during the period Mitchell was in charge. Reuben Thorne, who captained the All Blacks during the Mitchell reign, describes him as “a strong leader with passion and vision as well as a very astute reader of the game”.
When he left his job as Waikato’s coach in the NPC in 2005 and moved to Perth to take charge of the Western Force, Mitchell’s international coaching success rate stood at 86%.
He won great credit for the role he played in the establishment of the Western Force. In his second last season (2009) with the club, the victories he achieved over the three other Australian-based provinces underlined the rousing progress the Western Force made under his watch.
On his departure to take up a three-year appointment with the Johannesburg-headquartered Golden Lions, Geoff Stooke, chairman of RugbyWA, said rugby in Western Australia owed a great deal to Mitchell, who started with a blank piece of paper on his arrival in 2004 and built a strong foundation for long term success.
“John Mitchell worked passionately and diligently in setting up the Western Force rugby program from the ground up,” said Stooke. “John was one of the key catalysts in achieving our objectives of growing rugby in Western Australia and growing Wallabies, achievements that cannot be underestimated. He departs with our best wishes and appreciation of his efforts over the past six years”.
With the approval of RugbyWA, Mitchell originally moved to Johannesburg to coach the Golden Lions Currie Cup team on a short-term basis. Because of the immediate success he achieved, the Lions moved quickly to secure his services as head coach of the Golden Lions’ Currie Cup and Super 15 teams.
To enquire about the availability of John Mitchell speaking at your next event within Australia or overseas please contact Nick Fordham )