It’s a Thursday afternoon, Tania Rosser is on her way to Gonzaga College in Ranelagh, south Dublin, to take training for the senior cycle rugby players. First though, before they hit the pitches, about 50 of those pupils will do yoga, an innovation she has introduced since taking the position of head coach to the Senior Cup team during the summer.
It’s a statement appointment, and not in a headline-courting manner. In coming through an interview process conducted by principal Damien McCaul and vice principal Stephen Carey, she wasn’t just the best woman for the position – she was the preferred and best applicant.
The New Zealand native, who arrived in Ireland 23 years ago, played international rugby across three different codes – touch, sevens and XVs. She won 58 caps for Ireland and participated in three World Cups, during the last of which she came out of retirement to help orchestrate Ireland’s victory over New Zealand in 2014.
Rosser was a player-coach at DLSP and Blackrock College, coached J1 (seconds) men’s team and did skills work with the AIL squad in Clontarf. She coached the women’s team in Old Belvedere and several of the Irish touch rugby international teams before leading the Leinster women to back-to-back interprovincial titles during a three-year tenure that started in 2021.
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Her passion for rugby stems from childhood. The youngest of five siblings to Denis and Nancy, she grew up on a “massive farm” in Hawke’s Bay before the family subsequently moved into the town of Hastings when she was a little older. Brothers Ray and Dan were sent to boarding school and the only time she got to see them was at rugby matches on weekends.
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Rosser admits to being the tiresome little sister, a shadow for her brothers who were eight and 10 years older. She wanted to play rugby but her parents forbade it, directing her towards netball and basketball, at which she excelled. She used to sneak out to play rugby until she was caught and grounded.
That rebellious streak – the refusal to have other people define her boundaries – has travelled with her in life. She badgered her father to set up a touch rugby footie team, to legitimise her participation. The first time her parents saw her play rugby was for Ireland in a 43-0 defeat to France at the 2006 World Cup in Edmonton, Canada.
She wanted to be a police officer but qualified as a primary schoolteacher at the behest of her mother, who thought the former occupation was too dangerous. She then moved to Ireland with her husband Simon Broughton, who had received a rugby-playing offer from Ballymena in the All-Ireland League.
It was supposed to be two years but relocating to Dublin changed the plan. Simon – now the Leinster Academy manager – played with DLSP and Leinster, as did Tania. Her first coach at the Kilternan club was George Hook. During Covid she enrolled in a high-performance coaching course with World Rugby.
Former England and Australia backs coach Scott Wisemantel was one of the mentors, while she got to do online workshops with former Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan and New Zealand mental skills guru Gilbert Enoka. When her three years at Leinster finished, she was on the lookout for another challenge and decided to pursue the position at Gonzaga.
Long-time Senior Cup team (SCT) coach Declan Fassbender, who led his alma mater to three Senior Cup finals including a first ever success in 2023, vacated the role to concentrate on coaching Lansdowne.
So why Gonzaga?
“I just decided to throw my name in, send in my CV in and see what would come of it.
“I (was) really disappointed that I couldn’t keep going with Leinster. So, I was looking for a new challenge and thought why not apply? I got the interview, went in and met the principal and deputy principal and had an honest conversation. They seemed open to it.”
She’s not the first woman to be involved in coaching an SCT team, even in Ranelagh. Sandford Park school, a middling punt from the entrance to Gonzaga, had former New Zealand sevens and rugby league international Mere Baker – she also worked with the Railway Union club at the time – as part of their senior coaching team in the early to mid-2010s.
Rosser started working with her new charges during the summer.
“The boys started doing strength and conditioning in July, about 40 kids. I thought it would be a good idea to go in, sit with them, meet them one-on-one, find out what’s driving them, what they like about rugby, what they don’t like about rugby, just asking them a bit about themselves.
“And just having that opportunity to say to them, look, my job is to make sure that they’re okay as people first. If they’re not well, or if they’re struggling in school or something, it’s okay – just come and tell me before training, and then we know that you’re off.
“Sometimes when these players turn up, we don’t know what’s happening at home or at school, or if they’ve had a hard day. And a lot of times these kids don’t get to say it because they’re too afraid. It’s taken the boys a while to warm to being open with their feelings but there has been a little purchase of late.”
Rosser’s principles in coaching young people is refreshing.
“My whole thing is, there has to be life after this (schools rugby) for them. Too many kids don’t go on and play club rugby after the Senior Cup because they’re beaten up or broken, or they haven’t enjoyed it.
“So how can I keep them, give them longevity, because there’s a long journey in their life and rugby career, if they continue to play club rugby. It’s just a holistic approach. It’s probably very different from other Senior Cup teams and I’m okay with it. I’m okay with people going ‘she’s mad’ or ‘this is ridiculous’.
“I don’t care what people think outside the programme or the environment. I look at doing things differently – bringing in yoga, making the boys bring recovery food to every single session before they get on the pitch, checking in with them.
“I like using different approaches. I shared with them my journey growing up, you know, facing racism (her mum is Maori), and being on an isolated farm, so they got a sense of who I was. The most important thing I said, the first thing is, I’m a mum.
“By the time we get through this campaign, you’ll be like my kid. If you need me, if you give me all you can, I’ll always have your back, on and off the pitch. It’s just how I am with players.”
Rosser looks to empower them on the pitch too. Her coaching operandi is inclusive rather than despotic. She’s had conversations with the boys, teasing out options for the game plan on the basis that if they don’t work, they can be discarded. It’s an interaction that wouldn’t be commonplace.
At home there is a fair amount of rugby talk with Simon as Leinster academy manager and her son Serge, a pupil at St Andrew’s College and part of the Leinster Under-19s squad.
He’s a scrumhalf, like mum, “only better”, in her words.
He’s named after the great French fullback Serge Blanco, whom both his parents loved as a player. Serge was very nearly called Fionn. Tania couldn’t pronounce the name adequately with her Kiwi accent, so her then-Ireland rugby teammates advised her not to go there.
She’s never been cowed by how others perceive her and is excited for what lies ahead. Rosser doesn’t look at glass ceilings, she just does what she has to do because it never occurred to her not to. She has encountered misogyny, asked whether she was the physio or the manager, but it doesn’t ruffle her savoir-faire.
In the past, she’s noticed that “between a male counterpart in my role and myself, I’d say that the male counterpart gets things a lot easier than I would”. She added: “And I’m okay with that. I’m okay with working to try and break down barriers. I’ll push the boundaries as far as I can, ask questions and try to make things better for our set-up.”
The Gonzaga boys will be the latest beneficiaries of that mindset. From her childhood days, she’s had to persuade people to give her an opportunity and that she’d take care of the rest. The level of success that ensued speaks for itself. A trailblazer and a woman for others, to tweak the Jesuit mantra.
