Canes role shows old ways can still foot it

Chris Boyd is a nod to the past and a beacon for those with ambitious determination. He is a rugby junkie who was saturated with a love for the game and rode that passion through his First XV years and into senior club rugby with Tawa as an outside back. The pharmacist changed direction to run some shoe shops in Wellington while he had to also turn his skills towards managing a family holding when his father died suddenly almost 30 years ago.

In 1989, Boyd took over at the Tawa club and began the long trek to coach of the Hurricanes via stops with Wellington, the Sharks, the International Rugby Academy, Tonga and the NZ under 20 side.

He is the odd man out among the New Zealand head coaches, the only leader without international or provincial playing experience. It is a select group.

In the 21 years of Super Rugby, Graham Henry, Brad Meurant, Jed Rowlands, Tony Gilbert and Boyd are the select few who have become head coaches without first class playing experience.

The game has changed enormously since Boyd began his coaching career when club training rituals, nationwide, were still pretty much a few stretches and jog to warm up, groups split into forwards and backs for drills then a team session before a few beers.

Science was about experience, listening to others and getting in some fitness with coaches — those men who had enough time to get down to the club two or three times after