Double-jobbing Greg Feek sees plenty of positives in his new Japan role

Greg Feek has taken a rather different route than the rest of Ireland’s touring party to reach Australia, yet two months in to a new career in Japan, the scrum coach could not be happier with his lot.

Eight years after joining fellow Kiwi Joe Schmidt’s new coaching team at Leinster, for what he imagined would be a two- or three-season stint in Ireland, the former All Black has taken the plunge and moved his family back to New Zealand while taking a job as an assistant coach at Japanese league club NEC Green Rockets.

Feek, 42, will remain as Ireland’s scrum coach through to the end of the 2019 World Cup campaign but will be based in Kashiwa, a town north-east of Tokyo for the short Japanese season allowing him more time at home in New Zealand his wife Jessica and their children.