Former All Blacks and Crusaders hooker Mark Hammett has returned to St Thomas of Canterbury College as director of rugby to oversee the school\u2019s programme.<\/p>\n
The 53-year-old was head coach of the school\u2019s first XV from 2021-2024 before taking up a short-lived role at Christchurch, departing before the start of the club season to take time out while recovering from the effects of what he believes was long Covid.<\/p>\n
Hammett said his new role would involve a broader focus across all levels of the sport at the college, rather than just the top team.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a personal perspective, it\u2019s great fun coaching because it\u2019s what I love doing, but in terms of bang for buck for what I can offer across the board for all the coaches, I wanted to bring myself up so I could continue to upskill and support the wider programme.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that\u2019s what we have designed this year and what we would really like to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hammett, who has also coached the Hurricanes and Highlanders in Super Rugby, said he always felt he would end up back at St Thomas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had an absolutely fantastic four years in my previous role. I stay pretty connected to the place and it was probably something I was always going to move back to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me it\u2019s a wonderful challenge. I\u2019m passionate about trying to support young people and upskill coaches within their strengths.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to turn them into Mark Hammetts but if we can help them with their coaching and teaching pedagogy then everyone succeeds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hammett, a St Thomas old boy, said it was meaningful to be able to help out at the school.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I went back, it felt like home, it was really easy to fit in.\u201d<\/p>\n
First XV head coach Kieran Coll, who was Hammett\u2019s assistant before taking over this year, said he was looking forward to working with him again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was awesome working alongside him and I learnt a lot. He helped me grow as a coach through that time and it will be good to have him back in the mix,\u201d Coll said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be in a different capacity, but it\u2019s going to be really beneficial for all our coaches.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hammett\u2019s new role officially begins next year, but he is already helping with preparations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m probably in there two days a week at the moment. A lot of planning is happening this side of Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was excited to get into the job properly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love seeing the growth of our young men, I think it (rugby) is such a powerful tool, particularly around our engagement and our ability for that to support the academic side of the college.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former All Blacks and Crusaders hooker Mark Hammett has returned to St Thomas of Canterbury College as director…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-289497","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}