The Canterbury Rugby Football Union is pleased to announce that Tabai Matson is Canterbury’s new assistant coach.

Former centre Matson, 35, played five games for the All Blacks in 1995-96 and two Tests for Fiji at the 1999 World Cup.

He played 58 times for Canterbury and earned 25 caps for the Crusaders before playing for Brive in France in 1998-2000, London Irish in 2000-01 and Yamaha in Japan in 2001-06 (also head coach).

His other coaching roles have included an assistant’s role with the University of Queesland in 2006 and head coach of the Gold Coast Breakers 2007-08 during which time the team made the semi-final.

Matson currently resides with his family on the Gold Coast in Australia and will head back to Christchurch in late May to team up with head coach Rob Penney as Canterbury look to defend their Air New Zealand Cup title.

Canterbury’s first match is against North Harbour in Auckland on Saturday, August 1.

“This opportunity is phenomenal for me at this time in my career,” Matson said. “To get the chance to work with Canterbury, one of the best provincial sides in the world, is a great honour.”

Matson will begin working with Canterbury on June 1.

Penney said: “I’m really looking forward to working with Tabai. He was a very good player in his time with Canterbury and the Crusaders and will add a lot to our set-up. It will be great to team up with him as we look to improve the team further in defending our title next season.”

CRFU chief executive Hamish Riach said: “We’re delighted that Tabai has accepted the role. He is someone who has played for Canterbury and the Crusaders before travelling overseas so he has a broad rugby knowledge. We are sure he will add a lot to Canterbury.”

Matson replaces John Haggart as assistant coach after Haggart did not re-apply for the position. Haggart is the rugby coaching manager for the R80 company (which establishes coaching resources and courses in conjunction with the CRFU) and is running the International High Performance Unit for Canterbury Rugby.