Brewer agrees to join West Hartlepool next season

MIKE BREWER, the Blackrock flanker and current club coach and captain, will leave Dublin at the close of this season having agreed terms with English side West Hartlepool.

The former All Black, who played on the losing side in the 1995 World Cup final, has been appointed director of rugby to the club, which this year slipped into Division Two of the Courage league after a discouraging 17 defeats from 20 matches played.

Tony Smeeth, who had been working with Brewer since his arrival at Blackrock, will continue to coach the side while the club decide on another course of action.

"He brought an awful lot of his international knowledge and experience to the club. I certainly learned a great deal from him and I am much better for it. He was very good on the big occasion day. He was thoughtful and analytical and to be honest I was looking forward to next year when he would have known the players a little bit better," Smeeth said yesterday.

"We've known he was going now for a week or so and I think the offer from West Hartlepool was just too good for him to refuse. I'm certainly sad and disappointed that he's leaving. Now we'll be looking for another coach, to possibly come in to back me up but no decision has been made yet."

Brewer had been involved with former Irish coach Murray Kidd with forward coaching and had in recent months also assisted Kidd's successor Brian Ashton in working with the Irish squad members throughout the Five Nations Championship.

Brewer, however, was never officially appointed to a position within the Irish setup and while there has been much talk of appointing a third man to work with both Ashton and manager Pat Whelan, no appointment has yet been made. There is, in fact, a volume of opinion that says that it may never be made.

It is, in any event, Davy Hazlett the Dungannon and Ireland A coach, who will travel with the development squad to New Zealand and Western Samoa this summer as the principal forward coach which suggests that the New Zealander's move to the UK will not have any significant effect on the Irish situation.

Brewer (32), who retired from international rugby after the 1995 World Cup with 30 caps, will finish out his season with Blackrock. Their final run in will amount to a maximum of three games if they can reach the Leinster Senior Cup final. They play against Bective Rangers today in the quarter final.

His first job in England will to consolidate the West Hartlepool team and make a concerted effort to get them back into Division One next season. Although Brewer had suffered from serious foot, calf and hip injuries during his All Black career, he has played successfully for Blackrock all season and is certain to also line out for the English side.

. All Blacks star Andrew Mehrtens helped Canterbury Crusaders inflict a rare defeat on Gauteng Lions - and rarer still in Super 12s the South African side failed to score.

Out half Mehrtens scored a try and kicked a conversion and two penalties as Canterbury triumphed 23-0 in Christchurch.

Skipper Todd Blackadder and Western Samoan wing Afato So'oalo making his Super 12 debut also scored tries for the Crusaders.