of the 2001–02 season, initially on a three-month contract. The club advanced to the final of the Zurich Championship that season, and also qualified for the following year's Heineken Cup. After Dean Ryan quit as head coach, Thorburn was offered the position with a two-year deal. The following season saw Bristol relegated from the Premiership. He consequently quit as head coach with one more season remaining on his contract and went back to New Zealand. He had earlier spoken out against a proposed merger with Bath, but accepted the possibility of such an outcome when relegation became imminent. The club was ultimately saved. Thorburn was named a Life Member of the North Harbour Union in 2005, becoming only the third individual to be bestowed this honour. That same year, he was appointed as a selector for the New Zealand national under-19 rugby union team and served in that role until 2006. He also worked for the International Rugby Academy and acted as a consultant for Manawatu Rugby Union. Thorburn was appointed interim coach of the United States national rugby union team in April 2006. Although his contract was only supposed to last through World Cup qualifying, it was extended through to the competition proper in December 2006 after a series of strong performances. The team was expected to perform adequately despite being placed in a difficult pool at 2007 Rugby World Cup finals, but Thorburn regretted the fact that the team played few warm-up games against strong opposition. After a promising 10–28 loss to England, the USA lost their remaining three games, managing only to achieve a single bonus point in the 21–25 loss to Samoa. Despite the fact that his side had to play two games in the space of five days, Thorburn declined to pinpoint the schedule as the reason for their loss. When asked about racism in rugby in January 2009, Thorburn recognised that it did indeed exist in the sport. However, he believed it was a mistake to target rugby for special criticism, as racism was no more widespread there than it was in other parts of the populace. He contended the sport had actually "done more for race relations than just about any other section of society", and thus it was "unfair to label rugby as racist". Personal life Thorburn worked at Kempthorne Prosser from 1968 until 1973. He then started a pharmaceutical company named