Coaches from Auckland, Northland and North Harbour’s Bunnings NPC sides are receiving help from one of the world’s best this season. World renowned forwards coach, Mike Cron, has been working with Steven Bates (Auckland), Graham Dewes (Northland) and Ben Afeaki (North Harbour) in an effort to upskill and grow coaches in the Blues region.

Cron, known for implementing unique coaching methods such as sumo wrestling, cage fighting and ballet dancing, has 38 years of coaching experience under his belt, including 16 years honing the skills of the All Blacks pack. He describes the current coaches he is working with as “great humans” and has been impressed by their willingness to learn.

“I see my role as having two main functions,” said Cron. “There's hands-on coaching, reviewing games, analysing coaching style and providing feedback in those areas. Then there’s the mentoring side, where I look to help grow and develop these guys,” he said.

“Often when you coach you have a whistle in your hand and you’re fully involved, seeing only about 30 or 40 percent of what’s happening. I can be that independent eye, see the bigger picture, and provide feedback on what I’m seeing and hearing when they coach.”

He also explained how sumo wrestling and ballet dancing have made their way into his coaching handbook. “I really enjoy using different sporting examples as another way of getting a message across,” he said. “Naturally when you combine rugby with ballet or cage fighting it grabs people’s attention and keeps them engaged.

The physical nature of rugby and all the different movements involved means we can learn a lot from other sports.” Blues CEO, Andrew Hore, said it was a focus of the club to continually upskill and develop its people.

“Having someone of Mike’s experience, knowledge and mana working with coaches in our provincial unions is simply outstanding,” said Hore. “We want to nurture talent in the region from both a playing and coaching perspective. The sustainable success of our Blues region is about ensuring we develop the talent we have on our doorstep.”

Hore’s sentiment is a view shared by Cron himself. “It’s hugely important to develop our coaches,” said Cron. “I applaud the Blues for getting this initiative off the ground and providing resources for their region’s coaches to grow and develop. We are quick to put plenty of support around promising young players, but in my opinion we need to do the same for our up-and-coming coaches in order to fully support and grow rugby programmes.”

So while you shouldn’t expect the Blues props to be pirouetting to their next scrum, it seems the region’s coaches will have a spring in their step, armed with a different coaching perspective.