Brad Cooper to join Taranaki Bulls as assistant coach

Widely respected up and coming coach Brad Cooper has joined the Yarrows Taranaki Bulls as an assistant coach for the 2022 Bunnings NPC season.

Cooper, the current Taranaki Rugby Participation & Development Manager replaces Johnny Weston who made recently made himself unavailable for 2022 campaign due to work commitments.

The son of Yarrows Taranaki Bulls centurion and former Head Coach Colin Cooper will lead the backs under the tutelage of Head Coach Neil Barnes. Taranaki Rugby Chief Executive Officer Mike Sandle was thrilled to bring Cooper into the fold.

“We are lucky to have someone with Brad’s calibre available at such short notice to join our current Yarrows Taranaki Bulls, coaching team.  With a wider training group commencing training soon, it was important to provide clarity to players and to ensure we had coaching resources available to assist Neil Barnes and Jarrad Hoeata. Brad is developing into an experienced coach in his own right and has a fine pedigree being the son of Colin Cooper.”

Cooper, a former New Plymouth Boys’ High School pupil and current NPBHS 1st XV assistant coach had an extensive playing career for Clifton (120 matches) and Poneke (2005/2006) before starting his coaching career with the Taranaki Under 16s in 2014. He then went on to coach Clifton, Taranaki 7s and the Taranaki Development side before moving on to NPBHS.