Greg Somerville adds experience to Makos' mix
Tasman's new set piece coach and former All Blacks prop Greg Somerville at Lansdowne Park with daughters, from left, Eden 10, Rylah 7 and 11-year-old Paige.
The Tasman Makos welcome a new, but familiar, face to their coaching team for the 2017 Mitre 10 Cup season.
Greg Somerville, a 66-test All Blacks prop from 2000 until 2008, has joined the Makos' staff as the set piece coach, alongside a role as Tasman resource coach.
Somerville enjoyed a long playing career, including 115 games for the Crusaders over 11 seasons. He then spent two years with Gloucester, in England, before concluding his playing career in 2011 with the Melbourne Rebels.
After hanging up his boots he has been a scrum coach with both North Harbour and Hawke's Bay in the NPC then, for the past four years, he has been helping Japan's Ricoh Black Rams club with their scrummaging.
After returning to Marlborough to be closer to his three daughters, aged 11, 10 and seven, Somerville saw the Makos role advertised and put his name forward. "I had been interested in getting more into rugby coaching for a while so it has worked out pretty well," he added, although recalling it felt somewhat strange sitting across from [Makos head coach] Leon MacDonald at the interview table when he was more familiar meeting for a coffee with his former All Blacks and Crusaders team mate.
The 39-year-old sees Tasman as a good fit. "I knew [the Makos] had a good culture, good people … getting into coaching, and anything rugby, is about being able to work alongside and understand the people you are with, so that was quite an incentive."
He is looking forward to getting his teeth into his new role. "I'm still pretty new on the coaching scene so my priority is to try and do my set piece stuff well, put all my time and effort into that and let Leon and Leo [assistant coach Crowley] look after the bigger picture with the team."
While the vastly-experienced player has his own philosophies on set piece play, he is certainly not intent on making wholesale changes to an area that worked successfully last season. "I want to be able to work with the players and we have some pretty intelligent players around the lineout, the like of Alex Ainley and Quinten Strange. It's about working with them and not being hell-bent on what I think is going to work … they are the ones out there running it, so my job is setting up the framework, putting ideas in front of them and working together to formulate a plan for each week."
Somerville, who has been working part time in Marlborough since April, has had a good chance to check out the club scene and was impressed with the distribution of talent.
"It is good to see a wide spread of Academy players and Makos wider training group guys throughout the clubs, instead of being just loaded into one or two dominant clubs. We encourage those guys to go back to their clubs, to be leaders and take skills back … across the board the level is quite good."
However he admits the club scene is challenging, right across the country. "Just keeping people interested … finding a happy balance between those who just want to play and do well for their club and those who want to be professional, it is a challenge."
Somerville knows full well he is stepping into a Makos environment surrounded by high expectations after their efforts over the past four years, but emphasises the fact that all provinces are basically beginning anew.
"Everyone starts on the same line come the beginning of the Mitre 10 Cup … it's just about making sure we are really diligent about our work leading up to game day.
"One of the main things though is maintaining the enjoyment that you see among the Makos guys when they are on the field … keeping the smiles on their faces when they are out there, keeping that really buoyant culture going."
