Brad Johnstone

Who is Brad Johnstone?

Bradley Ronald Johnstone, known as Brad Johnstone, is a former New Zealand rugby union footballer and a current coach. He used to play as a prop.

He first played for Auckland, in 1971, and went onto to play 122 matches for them including captaining them between 1977 to 1981.

Johnstone had 13 caps for New Zealand, from 1976 to 1979, scoring 2 tries, 8 points in aggregate. During the 1978 New Zealand rugby union tour of Britain and Ireland, he completed a "Grand Slam" with the four Home Nations.

He was the head coach of Fiji at the 1999 Rugby World Cup finals. He was assigned subsequently to Italy, where he stayed from 2000 to 2002. The team won his very first match in the new Six Nations, inaugurated in 2000 with the admission of Italy into the previous Five Nations, against Scotland; however, Italy failed to score a victory in the following 14 matches. Problems with the Italian Rugby Federation led to Johnstone's dismissal in 2002.