John Tabaiwalu Fakavale Matson (born 14 May 1973) is a New Zealand

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

coach and a former New Zealand and Fiji rugby union representative. He is currently head coach at

Japan Rugby League One Japan Rugby League One (), formerly known as the Top League (), is a rugby union competition in Japan. It is the highest level of professional rugby competition in the country. The Japan Rugby Football Union created the competition in 2003, b ...

side

Black Rams Tokyo Black Rams Tokyo (formerly Ricoh Black Rams) is a Japanese rugby union team in the Japan Rugby League One. Being ranked tenth meant that, in order to continue in the league, it had to defeat one of the top regional clubs in a play-off, which it a ...

Education

Matson attended

Nelson College Nelson College is the oldest state secondary school in New Zealand, a feat achieved in part thanks to its original inception as a private school. It is an all-boys school in the City of Nelson that teaches from years 9 to 13. In addition, it r ...

from 1985 to 1986, before completing his secondary education at Christ's College in Christchurch.

Playing career

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

, Matson represented

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

at a provincial level and the in

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

. He was a member of the New Zealand national side, the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of New Zealand, which is considered the country's national sport. Famed for th ...

, in 1995 and 1996, playing 5 matches but no internationals. He played two matches for

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

at the

1999 Rugby World Cup The 1999 Rugby World Cup () was the fourth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial international rugby union championship. It was the first Rugby World Cup to be held in the sport's History of rugby union#The professional era, professional era. Four a ...

Coaching career

Matson formally played and coached

Yamaha Júbilo Shizuoka Blue Revs (formerly the Yamaha Júbilo) are a rugby union team based in Iwata, Shizuoka, Japan. The team came second behind Toshiba Brave Lupus in the second season of Japanese rugby's Top League (2004–05). They were coached by former ...

in his final three seasons for the club. He went on to become assistant coach and player at the

University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...

before becoming head coach of the

Gold Coast Breakers The Bond University Rugby Club is an Australian rugby union football club that competes in the Queensland Premier Rugby competition. The club is based at the Bond University campus on Queensland's Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast. Bond Univer ...

in 2007. In 2009, he helped to revive the senior rugby programme of the oldest rugby club on the Gold Coast, the

Gold Coast Eagles The Gold Coast Eagles Rugby Union Football Club is an Australian rugby union football club that competes in the Gold Coast and District Rugby Union competition. The club is based in Southport on Queensland's Gold Coast. History The foundatio ...

, as the Director of Rugby and head coach of the first grade team. That team went on to win the

Gold Coast and District Rugby Union The Gold Coast and District Rugby Union, or GCDRU, is the local Sports governing body, governing body for the sport of rugby union on Australia's Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast. The GCRU runs a club rugby competition for men's teams with thr ...

senior club competition (in his absence as he joined Canterbury as an assistant near the end of the season). He returned to New Zealand in 2009 as

assistant coach, before being promoted to head coach in 2012. He led Canterbury to their fifth consecutive

ITM Cup ITM may stand for: Education * ITM Law School, one of the professional graduate schools of ITM University * ITM-IFM, Mumbai, India * Institut Teknologi Mara, a public university in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia * Institute for Information, Tel ...

title by winning the

2012 ITM Cup 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

. In 2012 he was hired by the Brazil Rugby Federation as a consultant as they began their journey towards the

2016 Rio Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

. He was focused on staging a training camp for the National Men's 15-a-side team and the Women's 7's team. Matson was also the first non-

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

to coach the

Māori All Blacks The Māori All Blacks, previously called the New Zealand Maori, New Zealand Maoris and New Zealand Natives, are a rugby union team from New Zealand. They are a representative team of the New Zealand Rugby Union, and a prerequisite for playing is ...

, assisting Head Coach

Colin Cooper Colin Terence Cooper (born 28 February 1967) is an English football manager and former professional footballer. As a player, he was a defender who notably played in the Premier League for Nottingham Forest and Middlesbrough. He played over 50 ...

from 2013 to 2015. After coaching the Māori All Blacks in their test victory against the

Flying Fijians The Fiji national rugby union team represents Fiji in men's international rugby union. Fiji competed in the Pacific Tri-Nations and now competes in its successor tournament Pacific Nations Cup. Fiji also regularly plays test matches during the ...

in June 2015, he joined Fiji's coaching staff from the

Pacific Nations Cup The Pacific Nations Cup is an international rugby union competition held between Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Canada, Japan and the United States. First held in 2006, the tournament is intended to strengthen the Tier 2 rugby teams by providing competitiv ...

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

which they went on to winthrough to the

2015 Rugby World Cup The IRB 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was ...

. Matson was an assistant coach for the 3 years for the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

in the

competition. He has held both Attack and Defence roles for them during his time and is a specialist backs coach. His departure was announced in September 2020. He joined

Premiership Rugby Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition, consisting of 10 clubs, and is the top division of the English rugby ...

side Harlequins as a senior coach ahead of the 2021–22 season. The previous season the club had won the league title. That season, he guided them to the semi-final playoff for the league campaign, losing to

Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century History of Germany, German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to ...

away in the semi-final playoff. The following season they finished sixth. After two seasons, he left his coaching role at the club to become performance director overseeing both the men's and women's sides. In March 2023, it was announced he would depart the club at the end of the 2023-24 season. In August 2024, following his stint at Harlequins he joined

side

as head coach.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matson, Tabai 1973 births Living people People educated at Nelson College People educated at Christ's College, Christchurch New Zealand rugby union coaches New Zealand rugby union players New Zealand international rugby union players Fiji international rugby union players New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in England 1999 Rugby World Cup players Rugby union centres Crusaders (rugby union) players CA Brive players New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in France