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Greg Cooper is the new Head Coach of the Utah Warriors. The 57-year-old New Zealander fills a role left vacant after the departure of Shawn Pittman halfway through the 2022 campaign. Assistant coach duo Shaun Davies and Robbie Abel saw out the rest of the season.
As a player Cooper is best known as Otago’s all-time leading scorer, while he played 7 tests for the All Blacks as a fullback between 1986 and 1992. He also appeared briefly with the Blues during the inaugural Super Rugby season in 1996. These achievements came after receiving a life-threatening cancer diagnosis at the age of 15. His treatment ended in 1983.
Cooper’s professional coaching resume is extensive. After first moving up the ranks at Otago he took over the Highlanders in 2004, lasting four seasons, while also coaching New Zealand’s u21 side in 2006. A seven-year stint in Japan with NEC followed, and then two years with Stade Français in Paris. He returned to Japan with Mitsubishi in 2018 and has been there since.
Utah have had three previous Head Coaches since their first season in 2018. Alf Daniels stayed for the first two seasons before giving way to Chris Latham in 2020. The former Wallaby stepped away for personal reasons the following year with former Eagles prop Pittman taking under until this past year.
The introductory press conference can be seen below:
