A REDS RETURN REMAINS THE AIM
IT was last month on Hurricanes duty in South Africa that Jason Holland first heard Rassie Erasmus was on the way out of Munster.
Having starred in the centre with the Irish province from the late 1990s until 2005 before starting his coaching career there in 2008, he’d love to work for Munster again. Just not now.
‘I’d love to go back but not at this moment. We have got such good mates over there. I still love the Irish, love the place. I’d love to go back at some stage but not in the near future.
‘Long-term it would be good to get back, especially when Axel [Anthony Foley] passed away, I thought, “Jeez, I want to go back, I want to go back”. But we’ll see what happens here.’
The 44-year-old is carving quite a reputation for himself at the Hurricanes, arriving last year from Crusaders academy to help the 2015 beaten finalists become first time Super Rugby champions. He relishes the set-up.
‘Chris Boyd is the boss who doesn’t do a lot of on-field coach‘Then ing. He just sits over everything and lets you do your bit, which has been great because I’ve been able to run the attack and the backs. That’s my puppy, he rarely says or has anything to do with it, which has been awesome.
‘I’m learning every day. We used to need a thick skin in Munster, not take things too personally, and it’s just the same here. It’s important to have fun. If it’s all too serious for people, you won’t get anything out of them, so you have got to have that balance.’
Coaching has been Holland’s saviour. He says he was hopeless when he first went to university after school in Palmerston and even the business degree course he took up after retiring still has a year to run, Declan Kidney’s call to join the Munster backroom putting an end to his studies.
‘I haven’t looked at any study since. I’m all-in on the footy boat at this stage. I came home and didn’t know what I wanted to do and had finished playing and it was a bit of a shock, but it’s a good job to be in now.
‘New Zealand Rugby put lots into your personal development, give people lots of opportunities to get away and develop yourself. It’s been a great little journey.’
That journey including a short stop at Munster last November. ‘Myself, Chris Boyd and Bruce Blair, who runs coach development for New Zealand Rugby, went to a summit in London, then nipped over to the MunsterMaori game — there wasn’t much development going on there that night!
we went to Montreal, where Cirque du Soleil train and do all their rehearsals. We just watched how their coaches directed all their artists, who are top trampolinists, and do all their tricks. We were there three or four days and saw how they taught, how they worked with different people from all over the world.
‘Then we went to the San Antonio Spurs and watched famous coach Gregg Popovich operate. We were gone about two and a half weeks and it as cool, looking at finding ways to get you thinking more laterally.
‘It’s all around culture and how you put your weeks together. And teaching, how you can teach differently and how you can keep messages clear, all those sorts of things that I’m interested in.
“In my first couple of years at Munster, you knew what you wanted but I was s*** at getting messages across to the boys.’
Right now, the Hurricanes and life in Wellington is the dream job, even though the travelling involved is enormous. ‘I’d love to stay here for a good while, partly because the family, I’ve moved them around. I remember I was telling the girls they were leaving Ireland four or five years ago or whenever it was and then nearly changing my mind because their worlds were falling apart, they were born over there.
‘I’ve still got lots to learn, an opportunity to run the attack and the backs and bounce ideas of Nehe Milner-Skudder and Beaudie Barrett and TJ Perenara, which is great learning.
‘I’ve got no interest in being the head coach. I just want to be out on the grass — technical, tactical, skills — that’s what excites me.
‘I’d love to have another three or four years here, just doing what I’m doing and getting better at it. Then I’ll see what happens. I’ll get the kids through school first and hopefully win a couple of championships here.’
‘We used to need a thick skin, not take things too personally’