Old guard to polish Taranaki's rising stars

A group of former Taranaki rugby players has banded together to promote a coaching initiative aimed at improving emerging talent.

Headed by 182-game veteran Andy Slater, the specialist coaching panel will also consist of former rep players Daryl Lilley, Michael Carr and Brendan Haami, while former Taranaki assistant coach Leo Crowley and championship-winning club coach Kevin Walden will also be heavily involved.

Forty players, aged from 13 to 17, have been selected in the first emerging players squad.

Overseeing the programme will be Taranaki Rugby Football Union development manager Michael Collins and development officer Clark Laidlaw.

The union's strength and conditioning coach, Aled Walters, will also be involved.

The programme has the backing of the New Zealand Rugby Union which has agreed to provide specialist mental skills and nutrition advice.

"We've felt that these guys are getting all this information rammed into them in the last couple of years they are at school when the guys have already got into a lot of bad habits," Laidlaw said yesterday.

Most of the 40 players have been identified through Taranaki age-group sides and nominated by various coaches as suitable for the squad. Laidlaw said players outside of those squads, who had caught the eye of rugby development officers, had also been selected. Of those selected in the emerging players' squad, Laidlaw said a small number would be identified as making the next step up to the TRFU academy. "Those will be the guys we think can go on to play in teams like the Hurricanes schools side and go on from there."

Laidlaw said the former rep players, most of whom had been been involved in coaching in some capacity, had no qualms about volunteering their time.

He believed the programme would be a long-term initiative, with plans already in place for peer coaching once players had been involved in the squad for several years. "We've identified leadership is not a real strong point amongst young players here," Laidlaw said. "They're happy to be led but leading is a different story."

- © Fairfax NZ News