Alama Ieremia, moving on after five seasons as Auckland's head coach, has revealed for the first time the dramatic few days before he led the team to their NPC title with an overtime victory in the final over Canterbury at Eden Park in 2018.
In an interview with 1News, Ieremia recalls how he got a phone call at the Auckland rugby awards on the Wednesday night before the Saturday afternoon kick-off to say his father, Lale, was in a Melbourne hospital following a sudden stroke.
The prognosis wasn’t good.
So, in between trying to organise a flight to Australia, Ieremia, trying his best to “hold it together”, read his speech in front of his players and other guests about the importance of “finishing the job” before heading for the airport where he slept, still in his suit, in the departure lounge before catching a 6am flight.
“None of the players knew until the morning when I didn’t turn up for training, and that was the last session before the final,” Ieremia says.
Fortunately, Lale made it, so Ieremia flew home.
“I landed on game day – about 11 o’clock. We kicked off at 4pm so I went home and quickly prepared. Knowing that my dad was going to make it was such a relief.”
Auckland quickly found themselves in difficulties of a different, and, in the greater scheme of things, far less important sort against Canterbury, the near perennial champions.
In front of a crowd of 20,000, Auckland fought back to 26-all after a 20-7 halftime deficit to force the match into overtime with a converted try with five minutes remaining. Ieremia’s men eventually won 40-33 after 100 minutes as heavy rain fell.
Ieremia, who led Auckland to the playoffs in four of his five years (Auckland played only two matches last season due to Covid), remembers what he told his players at halftime in that match held on the occasion of his 48th birthday.
“All these people came to watch you boys perform and play your best - but we haven’t fired a shot yet. Is this how you want to be remembered? Follow your captain and believe in yourselves – just play!”
For Ieremia, 52, now contemplating a couple of overseas coaching options, it’s a day at the end of a season he won’t forget (it also helped him win the New Zealand coach of the year award in 2018).
He was assisted that year by Filo Tiatia, Tai Lavea, Mike Casey and Sir Graham Henry, the latter part of the interview panel that approved Ieremia for the job. He then offered to help as a defence coach.
Ieremia says it was the culmination of the hard work still being felt at the union today.
“To plant a style that the players really enjoyed, the freedom they played with, the buy-in we had, the accountability they put on each other – the set of values we had for that year and watch it all come to fruition, was really, really special,” Ieremia says.
“There are special teams that you coach during your career and that particular team was really important because it established what I’m leaving behind.”
Ieremia, a former All Blacks midfielder who came to Auckland via an assistant coaching job at the Hurricanes and a head coaching role at Manu Samoa following the urging of his great and late friend Dylan Mika, the former All Blacks, Blues and Auckland loose forward, now wants to spend time with his three sons Akira, Isaiah and Kobe who have remained in Wellington, before potentially taking on a new job in March.
"I have thoroughly enjoyed my time being part of the Auckland Rugby whanau. It was a privilege not many get to do. There are so many people who have supported me and made me a better coach – I thank them from the bottom of my heart.
"The connections I have made with the players, management, Auckland Rugby and the wider rugby community, is something I will hold dear for a long time to come."
Current Auckland assistant Craig McGrath will take over as head coach.
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