Rugby: Kiwi Vern Cotter to take over as Fiji's national coach

Vern Cotter. Photo / Getty Images.

Kiwi Vern Cotter has been appointed as the new head coach of the Fiji national rugby team.

He takes over the reins of the Flying Fijians after finishing his commitments with Montpellier where he has been since 2017.

Cotter, who led Scotland to a World Cup quarter-final in 2015, had the most successful record of any Scotland coach in the professional era and Fiji Rugby chairman Commander Francis Kean said Cotter had laid out a strategy to help the Fijians progress.

"Following an extensive recruitment process with many outstanding applications, the board is pleased to have secured such an exceptional candidate in Vern Cotter for the top job of Flying Fijians head coach," he said in a statement.

"Mr Cotter presented a thorough and detailed plan to take the team to new levels of success and we were impressed by his vision and expectations of what can be achieved by the program.

"We believe he will drive a culture of high-performance, fitness and discipline standards that are necessary to achieve success on the global stage."

Cotter said he was hoping he could help Fiji take the nest step in the global rugby landscape.

"Fiji Rugby has come a long way in the last few years and I am looking forward to the opportunity to work with the talent within the national teams and enhance the competitiveness of Fiji on the world stage," he said.