Former England international rugby player Barrie-Jon Mather has been appointed as the Fiji Rugby Union General Manager High Performance.
Mather, who is the current High Performance (HP) Director at the Australian-based NSW Institute of Sport, has a professional Doctorate and MBA with more than 20 years of applied HP leadership experience in managing elite rugby and other Olympic sport programs in England and Australia.
He will lead the overall HP program with the aim of delivering sustainable international success for Fiji’s four national teams, as well as building capability, capacity and development of Fijian HP coaches, managers and other key support staff.
Mather, who now takes over the position once held by Simon Raiwalui before taking up the FIJI Water Flying Fijians coaching job, will also ensure national alignment and close connection with the Fijian Drua Super Rugby Pacific team.
“The traditional strength of the Fiji 7s program and the recent results for the Flying Fijians in France have inspired everyone. My vision of success for Fijian rugby is to build on the outstanding work that Simon Raiwalui and his team have done in recent years in order to create a sustainable model of success for men’s and women’s rugby that will see Fiji achieving these sorts of results year after year,” Mather said.
The Fiji Rugby Football Union Trust Board (FRFUTB) has also announced Alana Thomas as the new Women’s Rugby High Performance Manager and former Flying Fijians hooker Bill Gadolo promoted to Elite Pathways and Performance Manager.
Former Wallaroo, Super W Head Coach and National Program Manager at Rugby Australia, Thomas will oversee and manage the Women’s Fijiana XVs and 7s programs.
Gadolo will oversee all pathway, age-group, talent identification and development programs across the women’s and men’s XVs and 7s games.
He will also take on the responsibility of elite coach development and managing the performance services across the national teams and HP Unit.
“The role offers a new challenge in my career, and I look forward to the opportunity as there is a great demand in developing our player pool and our support systems in the next Cycle and this the demand that I look forward to challenging myself with.”
Interim chairman Peter Mazey stated that Fiji Rugby will immensely benefit from the expertise of the three appointees in the next world cup cycle prior to the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia.
“The Board of Trustees is very confident the experience, skills and diversity of the new FRFU HP Program leadership of B-J, Alana and Bill will make a positive impact on the future performance of our national teams and pathways.
“We know that HP never stops and it’s getting harder to win on the world stage. We are prioritising an integrated model where our national teams collaborate and work together with a priority on the holistic development of the players.”
