Tony Eion Brown (Attended King’s High School in 1993)
Tony grew up in the South Otago towns of Balclutha and Kaitangata before moving to Dunedin in his final year of high school. Before coming to King’s, he had represented Otago Country in both rugby and cricket, and he said the move to Dunedin was necessary to further his career in both sports.
At King’s, he was a School Prefect and winner of the Salter Trophy given for sporting excellence at King’s. Tony represented Otago in three sports: rugby, cricket, and softball. He achieved the highest bowling and batting averages for the School First Eleven. The school awarded him the Cleavin Cup for his top batting average in the First Eleven. The School awarded Tony a Blue in Cricket and Rugby.
On leaving school, Tony completed a certificate in fitness management and played rugby for the Harbour Rugby Club. He made his debut for Otago in the 1995 NPC.
The launch of the Super 12 in 1996 also granted Tony a spot in the first-ever Highlanders squad. The selectors also picked him for the NZ Colts team and the NZ Maori team. In 1998, the New Zealand Rugby Union gave him the Tom French Cup as the Māori player of the year. Between 1996 and 2004, Tony played 71 games for Otago and 83 games for the Highlanders. At this time, Tony held the record as the top points scorer for the Highlanders with 857 points.
Tony was first picked for the All Blacks in 1999. He played a total of 18 test matches, scoring 171 test points between then and August 2001. His international career included matches for New Zealand at the 1999 Rugby World Cup.
Brown’s goal-kicking feats enabled him to score over 30 points in three separate internationals (against Italy in 1999, Samoa in 2000, and Tonga in 2001) – the only player to have achieved this.
He played three seasons in Japan (2005–2008) for the Sanyo Wild Knights in the Top League. The fans voted him MVP in a J Sports poll.
In 2006, he also played Super 14 in South Africa with the Sharks, and in 2008, he played with the Stormers.
After his stints in Japan and South Africa between 2004 and 2011, Tony returned to New Zealand in 2011 for his final Super Rugby season before moving to Japan with the Wild Knights as a player-coach. He retired at the end of the 2011 season and started his coaching career as Otago Head Coach until 2014. Tony became an assistant coach for the Highlanders in 2013 under Head Coach Jamie Joseph. The Highlanders selected him to succeed Jamie Joseph ahead of the 2017 Super Rugby season, following Joseph’s departure in 2016. The Highlanders beat the British and Irish Lions 23-22.
Later in 2017, he joined Jamie Joseph as Japan’s assistant coach. Tony worked with Joseph in Japan, and the Sunwolves set up and were confirmed as the Sunwolves head coach for the 2019 Super Rugby season. At the 2019 World Cup, he helped Japan reach the quarter-finals before returning to the Highlanders as an assistant coach for the 2020 Super Rugby season.
An Otago folk hero, Tony, is one of the sharpest minds in New Zealand rugby. He was the 2021 Highlanders coach, helping the team to success against the top teams in the competition.
Tony is currently an assistant coach for the South African national team.