Former Wallabies coach Laurie Fisher joins Zimbabwe staff ahead of Rugby World Cup return

Laurie Fisher, the former Wallabies forwards coach, is working with Zimbabwe’s national side as a breakdown consultant as the Sables build towards their first Rugby World Cup appearance since 1991.

The 68-year-old departed Australia’s setup in July when Joe Schmidt handed the head coaching reins to Les Kiss, but has returned to the Test arena to assist Zimbabwe head coach Pieter Benade. Former Exeter Chiefs skills coach Ricky Pellow, who focuses on backs and attack, has also recently joined the Sables’ staff.

Fisher’s immediate task is to prepare Zimbabwe for Saturday’s Test against Namibia in Harare, a warm-up fixture ahead of the second phase of the World Rugby Nations Cup, which resumes in early November.

Zimbabwe High Performance Director Liam Middleton explained that a review of the Sables’ July Nations Cup campaign — in which they lost all three matches, 36-26 to Tonga, 31-15 to USA and 23-19 to Canada — identified the breakdown as a priority area for improvement.

“It was a very encouraging Nations Cup competition for us in July,” Middleton said. “As part of our review afterwards, we identified that the breakdown was an area that we wanted to make some big improvements in the next few months. With the help of World Rugby, we were able to get Laurie Fisher here. He’s a class coach, a breakdown specialist, a font of incredible rugby coaching knowledge.”

Fisher, who has been coaching for 25 years, said he is focused on laying foundations that will carry through to next year’s World Cup. “I’m here short-term trying to help the Zimbabwe Sables around their breakdown and collision work,” he said. “They are a really exciting bunch to work with, they have a lot of power, a lot of energy and we are just trying to put some fundamentals in place that’ll help them in the Test against Namibia and into the Nations Cup that they can carry forward into the World Cup next year.”

Beyond the Namibia fixture, Zimbabwe have two UK-based Nations Cup matches in November — against Samoa at the DIY Kitchens Stadium in Wakefield on 7 November and against Uruguay at Ealing’s Trailfinders ground on 14 November — before travelling to Angoulême, France, to face Chile on 21 November.