Pivac broke the news to the NZPA on Friday, saying he was returning to New Zealand for family reasons.

"We made a decision at Christmas time when I was home that the best thing for the family was for me to return," he said.

"At the end of the day, it hasn't worked out for the family."

Pivac has been no stranger to controversy in his role, with his strong disciplinarian approach leading to several spats with senior team members.

Star winger Rupeni Caucaunibuca notably fell foul of Pivac's insistence that players turned up for training camps, as did Biarritz wing Sereli Bobo.

Caucau was banned for a year by the Fijian Rugby Union (FRU), while Bobo was told that if he played the final stages of the Top 14 for Biarritz rather than heading for national squad training, he could miss out on the World Cup.

A disastrous tour to Australia last June led to multiple calls for Pivac to either 'resign or be resigned', but he survived the fall-out, and was thought to be content to take the team through to France 2007.

He insisted that the team was in a healthy state, but remained frustrated at the lack of financial help and availability of top players for bith Fiji and the other Pacific Islander countries.

"On paper we've got a pretty good squad but unfortunately in the three years we've been here, we haven't been able to put that paper team together," Pivac said.

"That is a frustration that every coach, not only in Fiji but the Pacific Islands faces.

"We don't have the funding to contract our players to the level they do in NPC, let alone Super 14 or these clubs in Europe."

Pivac mentioned Epi Tawake, High Performance Manager Ilivasi Tabua, and Iliesa Tanivula as the most ikely candidates to replace him as national coach.