While the Samoa Rugby Union and the P.M. may call him the coach or Head Coach, we beg to differ.

What we have here in the form of Sir Gordon Tietjens, is a consultant - a highly paid rugby consultant ie an expert who is paid a fee for providing advice.

When he came on the market after parting ways with the NZ 7’s, he made it very clear that a consultancy was what he was interested in.

And Samoa has given him just that.

So the deal is, he gets to live in his home town in NZ, even keep his day job, and presumably fly here or where ever the Manu 7’s go.

What we have with Sir Gordon Tietjens is a consultant and what we have in Stephen Betham, is a coach.