Restoring pride in the Stags
Dave Hewett says ‘‘some hidings’’ at Rugby Park helped convince him to sign up for the biggest challenge in New Zealand rugby – restoring the roar to the Southland Stags.
The ex-All Blacks loosehead prop says Invercargill was always a challenging destination.
‘‘I remember getting some hidings down there. The weather was less than ideal sometimes and Southland were just tough to play against.
‘‘That sicks in my mind, as a vivid memory. That’s the reason for accepting the job.’’
Hewett takes over after the Stags suffered a winless wooden spoon season in 2017.
Some would say it’s a poisoned chalice – how can one of the smallest provinces, demographically, in the Mitre 10 Cup competition hope to compete with the bigger, Super Rugby franchise base unions?
Hewett prefers to see it as ‘‘a challenging opportunity’’.
‘‘There’s only one way to go – and that’s up.
‘‘Southland is a proud province. Although the people are very supportive, they want to have pride back in their game; that’s my first step.’’
Southland fans may have USA Rugby to thank for Hewett applying for the Stags’ job.
The 46-year-old admits he was ‘‘at a crossroads’’ after leaving the Crusaders.
Desperately keen for a head coaching gig after nine years as a scrum adviser or forwards coach, he had lost out in his bid for the vacant Crusaders and Canterbury jobs in 2017.
The powers-that-be in the Christchurch board rooms clearly wanted a clean sweep after Todd Blackadder left for English club Bath.
Tabai Matson joined Blackadder in Somerset, and Hewett had offers to quit Christchurch too.
‘‘I was tempted, I won’t deny that. I interviewed for about five jobs – a couple didn’t go my way and a couple I said no to.
‘‘The reason I said no was because of my family and my personal situation around opportunities I had [in New Zealand] around the Coach Accelerator programme.
‘‘Plus, I was wanting to be a head coach and I’ve got my business, as well.’’
So Hewett stayed home. He helped the under-20s win the world championship in Georgia then watched as Scott Robertson and his new coaching crew led the Crusaders to the Super Rugby title in their first season.
It was a bitter-sweet moment for Hewett after losing the 2011 and 2014 finals.
‘‘They were both hard in different ways – the amount of travel we did in 2011 [playing every game away from Christchurch after the earthquakes] only to get pipped at the final hurdle and then to be deprived because of a [refereeing] decision in 2014 was pretty hard to take, to be fair.
‘‘I admit I was torn [when the Crusaders won in 2017]. I was really happy that they won, but there was a lot of envy too – I wish it had happened under our watch.’’
He thinks the Blackadder coaching team created ‘‘foundation stones’’, but said Robertson’s group ‘‘did a great job’’.
‘‘I was really stoked they won, I’m born and bred Canterbury, it’s not as if I didn’t want them to do well.’’
But when the Canterbury job came up again at the end of 2017 after one-term coach Glenn Delaney’s shift to the Highlanders, Hewett ‘‘wouldn’t have applied even if it was [advertised]’’.
‘‘It was time for me to move away from red and black rugby.’’
Hewett, who completed a commerce degree before playing professional rugby, could have been forgiven for giving up coaching to focus on his burgeoning domestic construction business.
But he was enjoying the Coach Accelerator programme and the exposure to other sports, including cycling, athletics, netball, hockey and rugby league.
‘‘It got me thinking. ‘Is rugby the only one I stay involved in, or do I look at going down other paths in sport?’. Obviously not coaching – I wouldn’t be a very good netball or hockey coach – but potentially high performance management roles.’’
As he was considering his options, Hewett got a call from Dave Hodges – his former teammate at Welsh club Llanelli and
He’s grappled with the game’s toughest tightheads but coaching Southland looms as the biggest test of former All Blacks prop Dave Hewett’s rugby
career, reports
now USA Rugby’s director rugby.
The USA Eagles needed a temporary head coach for their European team last November with permanent appointee Gary Gold still committed to English club Worcester Warriors.
Would Hewett – already signed on as a technical adviser – step up to be head coach?
He said he’d have a crack despite having never met any of the Eagles.
‘‘Literally, I arrived on a Saturday . . . I had to meet the players and coaches on the Sunday and we had a test match the following Saturday.
‘‘We had to get some culture going within the group and also establish a game plan and perform.’’
Hewett coached USA to a win over Germany and a narrow loss to Georgia after a last-minute goal kick wafted wide.
‘‘I’ve been saying ‘we didn’t lose the game – we just ran out of time’.’’
Hewett said the trip ‘‘reinvigorated me to decide I did want to be a head coach and lead a programme’’.
‘‘It gave me the kick in the pants to apply for Southland job’’.
While he was keen to help the Stags, he had to consider family factors before accepting.
He said he chose not to go overseas because his family had ‘‘followed me with my rugby forever’’.
‘‘My wife [Michelle] is a rugby widow, and my kids have followed me with my rugby forever.
‘‘One boy has just left school and gone overseas. Our middle one is in year 13 and our youngest has just started high school.
‘‘It was my turn to say – ‘OK, for the next two or three years, we need to settle down and let them do their growing’.’’
The two younger Hewetts play in the front row, Austin as a tighthead prop and Reuben as a hooker. ‘‘The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,’’ their father quipped.
He doesn’t want to uproot them from their Christchurch school so he’ll commute to Invercargill but will be based there fulltime for the duration of the Mitre 10 season and its lead-up.
Family considerations aside, Hewett said the Southland challenge was too good to turn down.
‘‘If I put my selfish hat on, it’s a great opportunity for me to [be a head coach].
‘‘I’ve said all along that I would love to lead a programme, for two reasons: One, to see how I could influence it – hopefully positively – and the other to see if I’m any good at it.’’
As a player, Hewett was part of four Crusaders’ Super Rugby title winning teams and also won the NPC crown and the Ranfurly Shield with Canterbury.
He made his All Blacks debut as a 30-year-old in 2001 and finished after the 2003 Rugby World Cup with 22 test caps.
A Rugby World Cup winner’s medal is the only bauble missing from his trophy cabinet.
After ending his career with stints in Wales and Scotland, Hewett became the scrum adviser to the Crusaders’ 2008 Super Rugby winning squad in Robbie Deans’ last season.
He wasn’t able to repeat the feat in eight seasons as Blackadder’s assistant, but he’s been part of successful New Zealand secondary schools and Junior All Blacks campaigns.
So how will someone accustomed to winning as a player and coach, adjust to the challenge ahead at Southland?
Hewett says he’s ‘‘a realist’’. He’s not about to make brash predictions about steering the Stags from the bottom of the Championship to the grand final.
‘‘I look at it as a challenging opportunity.
‘‘Southland is a proud rugby province. The Stags haven’t performed to the level they have previously, and there’s a number of reasons for that.
‘‘I saw it as an opportunity to try and help, if I could, and a great opportunity, with the talent that does come from Southland, to try and get some performances back on the park.
‘‘Meeting the people in Southland and talking to the players – they are all passionate about [improving performances], and hopefully with that, some wins.
‘‘I’m not expecting to be world beaters in the first year. I just want to put good performances on the field that people can be proud of.’’
Hewett says it wasn’t that long ago – ‘‘2009 and 2011’’ – that Southland wrested the Ranfurly Shield from Canterbury.
‘‘Those days aren’t gone . . . [the potential] is still there. We’ve just got to make sure we are all on the same page around how we play.’’
Hewett’s a big believer in giving local players every chance to play for Southland before looking for outside talent.
‘‘We’ve got to make sure there’s opportunities for local, then domestic, then international.
‘‘Realistically, that’s how I became a Canterbury player, I got recognised in club rugby. Admittedly it was a couple of years ago now . . .’’
Hewett was 27 before he made his Canterbury debut after toiling away for the Sydenham club.
He says there has to be an avenue for young men to advance from club rugby to Mitre 10, then Super Rugby and onto the All Blacks, citing Luke Romano and Scott Barrett as recent examples and Southland’s Elliot Dixon as another case in point.
His aim is to get the Southland clubs – ‘‘town and country’’ – behind the Stags programme and he hopes any players brought into the province will ‘‘commit to coming down to play club rugby, get a job and contribute to the community’’.
Hewett likes what he sees in Southland, saying he’s been ‘‘really amazed’’ at Invercargill’s sporting facilities ‘‘right in the middle of town’’, including the velodrome and Southland Stadium.
He believes there is a lot of support for rugby in Southland, citing 9000 tickets pre-sold for the Highlanders’ pre-season game at Waimumu against the Crusaders next Friday.
Hewett brings some handy connections to Invercargill,
He played with Highlanders coaches Aaron Mauger and Mark Hammett with the Crusaders and the All Blacks. ‘‘And I know Glenn [Delaney] and Cory Brown too from the under-20s.’’
Working closely with the Highlanders is ‘‘a really big focus’’. ‘‘I want to be able to present and provide them with heaps of athletes that they’ll want to put in their group.
‘‘All Mitre 10 guys want to play Super Rugby. I want to have better connections with the Highlanders.’’
Hewett has spoken to former Southland coach Brad Mooar – now part of the Crusaders coaching team – about his experiences with the Stags. ‘‘Nothing specific, but just to get some understanding how the rugby side of it works [in Southland].’’
The ex-All Black remains close to Blackadder and is friends with Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson and new Reds head coach Brad Thorn.
He won’t rule out using his contacts to get some overseasbased players to Southland.
‘‘I’m not saying that’s always going to happen, I want Southland to develop as much talent as it can from within its own borders, or people who want to come to Southland rugby to contribute on and off the field, through club rugby and jobs.’’
Hewett accepts he is an outsider, but says he is fortunate to have Jason Kawau, who’s been retained as assistant coach, as his eyes and ears on the ground.
Kawau, a former Southland back, and Southland Rugby’s academy director David Hall had ‘‘kept the ship afloat’’.
‘‘Because Jason’s done such good work, engaging with the players, I want to keep him at the forefront of that.
‘‘I’ve met most of the people [in the Southland union] and they’re great people, doing the job well around coach development, the club interface, and the commercial side.
‘‘They’ve all got the game’s best interests at heart and want to see Southland do well. Although they’ve been involved in a difficult season, they are all really keen to do what they can to right the wagon again and get it going.’’
All Hewett is asking for is those most precious sporting commodities – patience and time.
‘‘I will make mistakes . . . I’m fully aware of that. I hope I can correct them and the mistakes aren’t significant enough to derail what we’re doing.
‘‘The biggest challenge I’ll have to overcome is that I’m not a fourgenerations deep Southlander.
‘‘Trying to win over the community will be an interesting one. A lot of it will come down to performance.’’