Rugby coach Peter Russell, most credited with reviving Magpies’ fortunes with an historic first NPC top division semi-final in his first season at the helm Hawke’s Bay in 2007, died suddenly on Thursday, aged 62.

Hawke’s Bay’s first-ever top division semi-final within his first few months earned him the honour of NPC Coach of the Year.

Russell was a star on the rise when he came to Hawke’s Bay and tackled the job of developing a team from that which finished 9th in the sudden elevation to the 14-team elite level of the Air New Zealand Cup the previous season.

As a Wellington under-19 and colts coach from 1995-1999 Russell’s teams recorded 38 wins from 41 games, his four years as senior coach took MSOP to three Wellington championship titles, and then coached Wairarapa Bush to win the last NPC third division title in 2025 and the first Heartland championship in 2006.

In Hawke’s Bay he introduced an 18-year-old Zac Guildford to NPC rugby, successfully applying to the New Zealand union for dispensation to start a player so young at that level.

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The Magpies beat Waikato in a quarterfinal, and reached the semi-finals, Russell labelling Guildford as a future All Black and setting the path for a five-season Magpies coaching career of 66 games, including 40 wins, and culminating in a bottom-half Championship division final win in 2011 over Manawatu, having during the season beaten three premiership sides.

During the tenure he was an assistant coach in Super Rugby with the Highlanders in 2009-2010.

He was three times named the Hawke’s Bay Sports Awards Coach of the Year, and afterwards headed for the UK he was Head Coach at Newcastle Falcons, taking the club back to first division rugby in the first season by winning the RFU Championship.

After two years he headed for Japan, and later returned to New Zealand where he coached the Manawatu Turbos in 2019-2022.

He also had more than a decade as a lead coach at the International Rugby Academy New Zealand (IRANZ).

Tributes on Friday included a Hawke’s Bay Rugby Union post, saying the union was saddened to hear of the sudden passing of a coach who alongside assistant Tom Coventry “reignited Hawke’s Bay Rugby.”

“The legacy of this period set the standard for which future Magpies teams have continued to strive to uphold,” the post said.

A post from the Greytown club of his roots in Wairarapa said that after “a remarkable career and countless achievements as a professional coach and servant of the game”, Russell chose to “bring his whānau home, to give back, to share his knowledge, and to pour his passion into our club and community.”