The Fiji Rugby Football Union Trust Board (FRFUTB) has confirmed the appointment of Barrie Jon Mather as the FRU General Manager High Performance.
Mather is a former England international rugby player and current High Performance (HP) Director at the Australian-based NSW Institute of Sport and has a professional Doctorate and MBA with over 20 years of applied HP leadership experience in managing elite rugby and other Olympic sport programs in both 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 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 in a statement.
As a show of confidence in the overall performance of Fiji Rugby, the position is funded generously by World Rugby’s High-Performance Investment Programme.