Sounds like a good bloke.
http://smh.com.au/news/league/nz-coach-seeking-glory-to-leave-adversity-behind/2005/10/13/1128796651457.html
NZ coach seeking glory to leave adversity behind
October 14, 2005
A year ago all was gloomy and doomy for Brian McClennan and his ill wife, but it's different now, writes Brad Walter.
Coaching the New Zealand team has been a long-held ambition for Brian McClennan and his father before him, but of more significance for the unassuming 43-year-old when he takes charge of the Kiwis for the first time in tomorrow night's Test is that his wife, Julie, will be in the Telstra Stadium stands.
A year ago, while he was in England with Kiwi Tri-Nations squad, McClennan's world was turned upside down when he received a 4am phone call to inform him that Julie had been diagnosed with a brain tumour and was undergoing surgery.
Rushing home, McClennan sold his auto-glazing business so he could care for their now five-year-old son, Regan, and three-year-old twins, Daniel and Katie, while Julie had radiotherapy and rehabilitation to help her learn to walk and talk again.
"There's 120 types of brain tumours you can have and the one that Julie has is called medulloblastoma which goes through the cerebellum that controls your balance," McClennan said. "But she's walking and talking great now, she has an MRI every three months to monitor her condition and she's doing really well. She's coming over for the Test, and this will be the first time she's been on a plane since last year.
"It's changed our lives. Both Julie and I are very positive people and we've always lived for the moment, so when something like this happens it makes you even more aware that you can't take things for granted. That's why I've carried on to do this job because you don't want to waste any opportunities."
While little known in Australia, McClennan is highly regarded in New Zealand after taking the small Hibiscus Coast club in Auckland's north from third division to win the domestic competition, and winning back-to-back premierships with Mt Albert in the past two seasons.
His father, Mike McClennan, was Graham Lowe's assistant during the Kiwis' most successful recent period in the mid-1980s and coached St Helens between 1990 and 1992, as well as being a member of Mark Graham's staff at the Warriors in 2001.
"When dad coached St Helens, Wigan were the superpowers of the world and they would get teams to Wembley and thrash them," Brian McClennan recalled. "They did St Helens like a dinner a few years earlier when Alex Murphy had them.
"He's a good coach [and] probably a bit more intense than me. At St Helens, some spectator was just going on and on during a game, so dad grabbed someone's pint and poured it all over the guy. I remember one game at home where the floor in our change room was a bit wet so dad went into the board room and ripped out the carpet and dragged it downstairs.
"But I'm really lucky I've got an old man I can go and talk footy to."
McClennan was also involved with the Warriors as an assistant to John Ackland, who has been appointed to help Ivan Cleary next season, and coached Nigel Vagana and David Solomona in the club's development team almost a decade ago.
While halfback great Stacey Jones was not a member of that squad after being elevated to first grade almost straight out of school, McClennan once partnered him at the scrumbase for Auckland, which he captained on another occasion to victory over the 1990 touring Great Britain side.
"I was just a steady player but I've always been staunch about my league, like most people involved in the game in Auckland," he said. "When you go through school you get a lot of heat put on you to play rugby union and you lose a lot of perks if you don't, so to stay a leaguie you've got to be real staunch."
Unable to pursue a career in the NRL or in Super League, McClennan wants to coach New Zealand until the 2008 World Cup and is putting all his energies into ensuring the Kiwis are as strong as possible.
"Julie is from a league family, too, and she's as staunch as I am, so if it works out after 2008 that we can make a career out of it then we'll look at that, but for now I'm just concentrating on getting it so New Zealand can create something special before our 100 years' anniversary [in 2007] and helping my family," McClennan said.
"This seven weeks away is the hard part, and when I told my son I was leaving to go on tour his only worry was, 'Who's going to do my breakfasts?' But Julie can feed the kids herself now.
"Just a year ago things were looking so gloomy and doomy, but here we are about to experience something special with a great bunch of people involved with the Kiwis. As far as we're concerned they got the cancer all out. It's not there any more, and it's never going to come back."
