RUGBY - Coach: Auckland shift will bolster Taniwhas

Mark Anscombe's appointment as the new Auckland NPC coach will further strengthen Northland's ties with their Super-12 partner, with the former Taniwha coach saying he is keen to continue developing players here.
Anscombe said a good relationship with former Auckland coach Pat Lam during his three-year stint at Northland's helm allowed him to fill gaps in his squad with loan players from Auckland.
"Not only does it do a job for Auckland, because it lets the players see how they can handle the step up, but it also helps strengthen Northland," he said.
His appointment as Auckland coach yesterday makes it very likely that the same arrangement will continue. "I'd like to think it would, most definitely, with Northland about to announce their new coach, who I know very well, then I don't see why that won't continue," Anscombe said.
There's no doubt that Anscombe's coaching career has progressed during his time in Northland. The highlight, he said, was probably this season when, in the face of intense pressure, the team turned their season around with three late wins.
"The fact is, a week before we went to camp we had 14 contracted players, so to be able to take it from there, when every other team's preparations were already in full swing and we were still trying to find our squad - to finish as well as we did as the top team in the Blues franchise gave me great satisfaction and that's some I'll have for a long time."
He said he owed the Northland public a vote of thanks for the support he had received, as well as the help he had received from the Northland RU, in particular former chairman Wayne Peters.
"Even when there were difficult times in the last year we always had the support of the North and that was something we as a group treasured and, when times got tough, we reminded ourselves of who we were representing and that's what we've got to bring back to this Auckland team," he said.
"They need to know who they are representing when they put the jersey on and play with the pride that previous regimes of teams down here have played with," he said.
Anscombe knows what it is like to play for the province after starting his representative playing career at Auckland in 1977. He is returning home, after previously coaching the Auckland Colts plus the development teams for both Auckland and the Blues, and being the assistant coach at North Harbour.
He will be taking the message of accountability, that he impressed on his players during his time at Northland, to Auckland with him.
"We always stayed positive and that allowed us to finish strongly, we kept believing in ourselves and we had some great leadership with Gus Collins,"
Anscombe said Collins was the model captain both on and off the field and Northland were lucky to have him.
"I can't speak highly enough of him, so many unions would like to have somebody of that quality and I'd like to have someone like that down here in Auckland,"
The coach will get to work immediately, putting together a management team to prepare the province for next season.
"I have to see who wants to stay on and what obligations we have to existing contracts and so on ... and throw some names up and maybe advertise a few positions."
The Northland coach for the 2009 season will be named before the end of the week.