23/09/2026
MARSHALL SUCKLING APPOINTED HEAD COACH OF THE WAVE
Sumner Rugby Club is pleased to announce Marshall Suckling as head coach of the Wave for the 2027 season.
Suckling has been at Sumner since 1998, when he started in the under 9s. He came through the junior club before Christchurch Boys' High, where he was in the 2006 First XV that won the national title and a world schools championship in Japan. Straight out of school he played Queensland Premier Rugby for the Gold Coast Breakers, then Pirates in Dunedin and a Highlanders Development side. He played 37 NPC games, 16 for Otago including the 2012 national final, and 21 for Canterbury across three championship-winning seasons.
He also captained Sumner through more than forty games between 2014 and 2017, and in 2016 became the first Sumner captain in the club's history to lift the DCL Shield.
"Rugby gave me a career, and it started here. I've played alongside All Blacks and under coaches who now run international sides, but what I want is for players at Sumner to be able to see the whole road from where they're standing, whether that road ends in the NPC or at the club for twenty years. The job now is building an environment where they get better, enjoy their rugby and genuinely want to be here."
Suckling has taken the role as a volunteer and will not draw the remuneration attached to it. At his request, that money will instead go directly back into the playing group, beginning with new kit.
Suckling's assistant coaches and management team will be announced next week.
He will be running sprint sessions from the beginning of November, and players interested in being part of the Wave in 2027 can contact the club at [email protected].
Read Marshall's full story, and what he is planning for the Wave: https://sumnerrugby.co.nz/news
