Overview
- Toshiba Brave Lupus announced on Friday that long-serving head coach Todd Blackadder will leave the day-to-day role and become the club’s high performance director and advisor.
- Forwards coach Joshua Syms has been promoted to head coach and will lead training, selection and match planning for the first team.
- The club said the change follows an injury-disrupted 2026 campaign that ended the team’s bid for a third straight title with a quarter-final exit.
- Syms will be supported by Nick Evans as attack coach and Bryn Evans as a forwards coach in a new-look staff designed to preserve the club’s playing culture.
- Blackadder joined Brave Lupus in April 2019 and delivered back-to-back Japan Rugby League One titles in 2024 and 2025, and the club says keeping him in a senior management role is meant to protect institutional knowledge while rebuilding toward the championship.