Temata dies while coaching Pukpuks

 FORMER Pukpuks coach and Chiefs and Waikato assistant rugby coach Farrell Temata died suddenly in Brisbane on Friday night. 

Temata, 68, is understood to have suffered a heart attack while helping coach the Papua-New Guinea rugby side there yesterday. He died in a Brisbane hospital. 

The former Waikato prop, who played 44 games for the province in the late 1960s and 1970s, was best known for the coaching team he formed with Fraser-Tech clubmate Kevin Greene, a former Waikato and All Blacks halfback. 

Greene and Temata coached together at the club for five years from 1987, winning the Waikato Breweries Shield several times. 

The pair then moved on to coach Waikato for three years from 1992-94, winning the inaugural NPC grand final in 1992 and ending the legendary eight-year Ranfurly Shield reign of Auckland the following year, when they beat the touring British and Irish Lions. 

Temata continued to lend his coaching expertise to a number of teams including the Te Aroha College Old Boys and Whangamata club sides and then in 2004 agreed to assist Ian Foster to coach the Chiefs, doing that job as forwards coach for three seasons until 2006. 

 He has been helping out with the Papua-New Guinea side as a coach and technical advisor for several years.