Jamie Lester

Jamie will be known to many of the Canterbury Rugby League fraternity through his playing and coaching days in Canterbury as well has carrying out a previous role with Canterbury Rugby League as Coaching and Development Manager in 2006 and 2007.

Jamie comes to Canterbury Rugby League with a significant breadth of Rugby League knowledge and experience. Having played for the Hornby Panthers and Riccarton Knights whilst also being a club committee member with Riccarton, Jamie went on to play representative rugby league for Canterbury and South Island teams between 2002 and 2007.

In 2008 Jamie moved to the UK where he played rugby league for the Hunslet Hawks (South Leeds) in the English Championship. In moving to Canada in 2010 Jamie was instrumental in rejuvenating rugby league after a 10-year hiatus. In doing so Jamie carried out roles of President of Ontario Rugby League, High-Performance Director with Canada Rugby League, and was Head Coach of the Canada Wolverines National Men’s team from 2010 – 2016. Jamie also played 13 tests for Canada and significantly contributed as an administrator, coach, and player in lifting Canada from 30th to 12th in RLIF rankings between 2010–2016.

Jamie returned to New Zealand in 2018 where he undertook the role of Head Coach at the Riccarton Knights and became Assistant Coach for the Canterbury Bulls in 2019 and 2020.

More recently Jamie has been a Canterbury Rugby League board member. Alongside Jamie’s wealth of Rugby League knowledge, he is a qualified and experienced secondary school teacher where he has taught at St Thomas’s of Canterbury, Cashmere High School as well as teaching in Canada.

Key areas of responsibility for Jamie are game and coach development, club capability and overseeing representative programmes.