Rugby: Raincheck on Crusaders?

Craig Philpott celebrates last year's ITM Cup Championship final win against Wellington. Will he toast promotion to the Super Rugby ranks later this year?

Hawke's Bay Magpies rugby coach Craig Philpott has heard talk suggesting he has already scored a Crusaders assistant coach role for next year.

"There's a lot of water to go under the bridge before those positions are announced at the end of the season. Obviously I would be keen but at the moment I'm focused on preparing the Magpies for the Mitre 10 Cup," Philpott said before the Magpies wider training group session last night.

Philpott was interviewed for the Crusaders head coach role but was unsuccessful. Canterbury coach and former All Black flanker Scott Robertson got the nod.

Philpott was one of Robertson's assistants with the New Zealand under-20 team which finished fifth at their recent word championship in Manchester. With Robertson moving up to the Super Rugby ranks there is a chance Philpott, who is in his fifth season at the helm with the Magpies, may get the Baby Blacks head coach job.

Although the Baby Blacks missed out on a semifinal berth for the first time since the tournament began in 2008, Philpott described the campaign as an "awesome experience".

"It's always exciting to represent your country. We had the cream of the country's talent in that age group and it was massive learning for me. Five weeks on the road and rugby 24/7 was quite different and it was really good to go to a place I had never been before."

New Zealand's struggled at scrums in the greasy conditions. Even in their opening 55-0 win against Georgia the Baby Blacks came under heat in the scrums. This was also the case in games two and three, a 33-24 loss to Ireland and a last-gasp 18-17 win against Wales.

Robertson's troops finished the tournament with convincing 71-12 and 55-24 wins against Wales and Australia respectively.

"We played against two United Kingdom teams as well as Georgia who were strong scrummagers. They play the game different over there ... when it comes to scrums with New Zealand teams it's a case of ball in, ball out.

"With United Kingdom teams and Georgia they scrummage for penalties, then kick for the corners, try and force penalties and kick for goal. They try and maul you to death," Philpott explained.

He pointed out the Kiwis struggled with the referees interpretations of physical dominance.

"We had to try and adapt to that. We also learnt the United Kingdom teams place a huge emphasis on developing their front rows for scrummaging with nutrition and strength programmes.

"We develop props who can step players and throw passes when required. They develop props who are prepared to scrummage for 15 to 20 seconds every time a scrum is set," Philpott said.

"I got some ideas for next year on how to be more competitive at scrum time and on how to deal with referees' interpretations better."

Philpott was impressed with the progress made by the two Hawke's Bay players in the Baby Blacks team.

"Marino [Mikaele-Tu'u] went away as the second choice No8 behind North Harbour's Hapakuki Moala-Liavaa who had played at ITM Cup level last year. Marino jumped him, got better and better and played in all but one of our games. We hope to get him some Mitre 10 Cup play this year before he has a second year at under-20 level.

"Jonah [Lowe] was really consistent and covered the wing and centre positions. He chased hard, received well and scored some really good tries. Jonah is developing into a pretty good footballer."

The Baby Blacks scored the most tries at the tournament and had 15 during their first three games.

Philpott confirmed the Magpies won't have the services of experienced utility backs Andrew Horrell and Richard Buckman this year. There is also uncertainty surrounding the availability of experienced Crusader Robbie Fruean.

The Magpies next match will be a pre-season encounter against Manawatu at Napier's McLean Park on July 30.