EVEN BEFORE TYLER Bleyendaal had swapped his boots for a whistle, his teammates at Munster could sense the New Zealander would be cut out for a career in coaching.
Bleyendaal spent six years at Munster but was limited to just 62 caps, a persistent neck injury plaguing him throughout his time at Thomond Park and forcing him to retire just short of his 30th birthday in 2020.
Four years later, he’s just signed up to become Leinster’s new attack coach. It’s an impressive rise to such a high-profile role, but the word around Bleyendaal has always been that he has a sharp eye for the game.
Had things worked out differently, he might even have remained in Ireland after his time at Munster came to a premature end. Bleyendaal started coaching in Garryowen when he finished up with Munster but instead of climbing the ladder here, an offer to join former Munster player and coach Jason Holland at the Hurricanes proved too good to turn down.
Bleyendaal has honed his craft with the Wellington-based outfit – who currently top the Super Rugby table by five points – and gained further experience by working with Tonga at last year’s World Cup.
Now he’ll be tasked with elevating a Leinster attack which is already regarded as one of the sharpest in the club game.
“It’s huge for him,” says Munster prop John Ryan, who remembers when a 24-year-old Bleyendaal arrived in Limerick back in 2014.
“He’s a relatively young coach but I know his calibre as a player. He unfortunately had a lot of injuries with us, he came in injured but the minute he came into us you could see he had that leadership.
“And it was beyond leadership. He was nearly contributing to the coaching.
He did a lot of hands-on coaching with us and was previewing and giving presentations to us so you could always see he was going to be a top-quality coach.”
Bleyendaal had long been on Munster’s radar, with their coach at the time, Rob Penney, previously working with the versatile back during his time at Canterbury.
Yet it was a rough start for Bleyendaal at Munster. The former New Zealand U20s star was already struggling with his neck injury when he joined and didn’t make his first appearance for the province until September 2015.
“When he came in he didn’t just want to sit by and do his rehab, he wanted to have an input,” Ryan says.
“I think that was ingrained in him at an early age and he’s a natural coach. But he played with us and was a brilliant player as well but just his injuries came on him again, I’d say after that 16/17 season, he had an unreal season and got Player of the Year but unfortunately fell back into more the coaching role again through injury.”
Ryan and Bleyendaal crossed paths again when the prop came up against the Hurricanes during his stint with Super Rugby’s Chiefs last year.
“I had the pleasure of playing against him as a coach last year as well and he was loving it. With Jason Holland moving on, he was content in the job he had so he’s clearly building that experience.
“Leinster are a world-class club and to get that job as an attack coach is a huge credit to him, so I’m delighted for him.
He’s a laid-back guy. I don’t want to call him detail-heavy but he’s very big on his detail. He’s serious but I got on really well with him. He takes his rugby very seriously.”
Ryan sent Bleyendaal a message of congratulations after news of his Leinster move was confirmed on Tuesday night, but it will be strange for the Munster players who lined out with Bleyendaal to see their old teammate wearing Leinster colours next season.
Leinster scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park says he’s excited by the prospect of working with his fellow New Zealander.
“I’ve only heard good things, and even chatting to a few lads who played with Tyler, he always had a coach’s brain, even throughout his playing career, so yeah, I’m looking forward to playing with him.”
Bleyendaal will be the fourth out-and-out attack coach Gibson-Park has worked with since joining Leinster in 2016, and the 32-year-old explains that each one has looked to build on the work done by their predecessor, rather than rip up the script and look to implement a whole new system.
“I was one year with kind of the back end of Girvan Dempsey [as Leinster attack coach], obviously Felipe [Contepomi] and now onto Goody, and Stu [Lancaster] was there the whole time and would have had a bit to do with the attack as well.
“I think it’s a matter of layering. A lot of the stuff that Felipe brought us in one area, Goody then came in and stacked a few layers on it so it’s more like that than a fresh start.”
It’s a big job for Bleyendaal, but Leinster feel they’ve landed a highly promising young coach to their books.
