Vernon Anthony Cotter (born 27 January 1962) is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former player, who was most recently the head coach of the Fiji national team.^[1] He started his coaching career at Bay of Plenty including winning the Ranfurly shield fof the first time in the union’s history He was part of the coaching staff for the successful Crusaders side between 2005 and 2006 winning 2 titles, before coaching in France with Clermont Auvergne between 2006 and 2014 coaching them to 6 finals and 2 titles including their first ever bouclier du Brennus coached the Scotland national team from 2014, including a quarter final at the 2015 Rugby World Cup, and left his role in May 2017 as his contract was not extended by the Scottish Rugby Union.^[2] In January 2020 Cotter was appointed coach of Fiji,^[3] but resigned in January 2023. He is currently coaching the Auckland Blues

Vern Cotter spent 10 years representing Counties Manukau in New Zealand before playing for a number of clubs in France.

Cotter departed Clermont in May 2014, to take on the role of head coach of Scotland.^[4] He was named the coach in May 2013, but as Clermont and the SRU failed to agree to release Cotter a year earlier, Cotter remained with Clermont until the end of his contract or until Clermont was knocked out of theirs respective tournaments.

Cotters first challenge as Scotland's head coach, was a 4-match tour across three continents over four consecutive weeks. In Cotters first match in charge, he led the team to a 24–6 win over the United States in Houston. A week later, a 19–17 win over Canada in Toronto. Cotter first major match in charge was a Friday night fixture against Argentina in Córdoba. Heading into this match, Scotland had won three connective matches against the Pumas on Argentine soil. This streak was extended following a 21–19 win over Argentina. A week later, Cotter faced his toughest challenge, an away match to the Springboks outside the International Window. This meant, Cotter could only select players that played for either Glasgow Warriors or Edinburgh. The weakened team lost 55–6 in Port Elizabeth, the biggest losing margin to South Africa on South African soil.

In Cotter's first home match at Murrayfield Stadium, Scotland won 41–31, scoring five tries against Argentina. It was the most tries they had scored against a Tier 1 nation since they scored five tries against Ireland in 2007. It was believed much of the team were based around the success of Scottish club side Glasgow Warriors, with 10 of the starting XV from the Glasgow side, with a further four players on the bench. The following fixture was a narrow 16–24 loss to New Zealand. For much of that match, Scotland had been in touching distance of a first ever victory over the All Blacks, but a late try during the 73rd minute secured the win for the No. 1 ranked side. Scotland's final fixture was against Tonga at Rugby Park in Kilmarnock. The match was the first ever match to be played on a fully artificial pitch by a Tier 1 nation approved by World Rugby. For Scotland, they won convincingly 37–12, gaining revenge following their first ever loss to Tonga in 2012.

During the 2015 Six Nations Championship, Scotland finished last place with no wins in their campaign. Most of their losses were narrow defeats, including a home loss to Italy for the first time since 2007. Though, during Scotland's Rugby World Cup warm-ups, Scotland gained revenge with a record win 48–7. Before Scotland's warm-up matches began, Cotter extended his contract with the SRU until 2017.^[5] During the 2015 Rugby World Cup, Scotland progressed from the pool stage with wins against Japan, 45–10, the United States, 39–16, and Samoa, 36–33, losing only to South Africa, 34–16. In the knockout stage they faced a highly fancied Australia team. With six minutes to go Scotland scored a try to lead against all expectations by 34–32. However, with a minute to go Australia kicked a highly controversial and disputed penalty to win the game 35–34 and end Scotland's participation in the tournament.

During the 2016 Six Nations Championship, Cotter led Scotland to their first victory over France since 2006, when they defeated the French 29–18. Scotland went on to finish 4th in the Championship, with a second win against Italy 36–20, but narrow losses to England 15–9, Wales 27–23 and Ireland 35–25 meant Scotland only finished with two wins. In June 2016, Cotter led Scotland to a 26–13 and 21–16 win over Japan to win their test series with the Brave Blossoms 2–0, winning their first test series since 2010.

In August 2016 it was announced that the Scottish Rugby Union would not be renewing Cotter's contract. The SRU Chief Executive, Mark Dodson said that "Vern Cotter has made a considerable impact on the development of the Scotland national side during his tenure. His rugby philosophy of setting high standards with a big emphasis on skill development has had a positive effect throughout Scottish rugby" and that he would continue as head coach until June 2017 after which Gregor Townsend would take over the position ahead of the June internationals.^[6] A fan petition was created by fans to #KeepVern which gained over 3000 signatures ^[7]

During the 2016 Autumn Internationals, Cotter led Scotland to two victories, beating Argentina 19–16 with a last minute penalty from Greig Laidlaw, before going on to beat Georgia 43–16; this was the first time that Scotland had hosted Georgia in a test match. Scotland narrowly lost to Australia, losing 23–22, though Scotland had been leading 22–16 with 5 minutes to go in the game.

In Cotter's final campaign as Scottish Coach, Scotland had their most successful Six Nations despite finishing 4th in the table. They won all three of their home games, beating Ireland 27–22, Wales 29–13 - in what was Scotland's first win over Wales since 2007 - and Italy 29–0 - which was the first time that Scotland had not conceded any points in a test match since beating Canada 41–0 in 2008. It was also the first ever time they kept Italy pointless and in a Six Nations game. Leading into the fourth round, Scotland were still within a chance of winning the Championship, however with a loss to France in round 2 (22–16) and then England in the fourth round (61–21) Scotland could not secure the Championship. However had France and Ireland not had their respective wins in the final round, Scotland would have finished in their highest ever positioning in the Six Nations of second.

In May 2017, Cotter left his position at Scotland with a 53% win rate (19 wins from 36 games), then the most successful coach of the professional era and the most successful since Ian McGeechan between 1988 and 1993.

In January 2020 Cotter was appointed as coach of the Fijian national rugby team.

Record by country

More information Opponent, Played ...

Opponent	Played	Won	Drew	Lost	Win ratio (%)	For	Against
Argentina	3	3	0	0	100.00%	81	66
Australia	2	0	0	2	0.00%	56	58
Canada	1	1	0	0	100.00%	19	17
England	3	0	0	3	0.00%	43	101
France	4	1	0	3	25%	69	74
Georgia	1	1	0	0	100.00%	43	16
Ireland	4	1	0	3	25.00%	84	125
Italy	5	4	0	1	80.00%	148	61
Japan	3	3	0	0	100.00%	92	39
New Zealand	1	0	0	1	0.00%	16	24
South Africa	2	0	0	2	0.00%	22	89
Samoa	1	1	0	0	100.00%	36	33
Tonga	1	1	0	0	100.00%	37	12
Wales	3	1	0	2	33.33%	75	66
United States	2	2	0	0	100.00%	63	22
TOTAL	36	19	0	17	52.78%	884	803

Close