Building blocks are in place

FAST MOVERS: Sam Monaghan (pictured) and Inia Katia . . . should "absolutely love" artificial surface

Joshua Syms won't be looking to reinvent the wheel when he takes up the position of head coach of the Wairarapa-Bush Heartland championship rugby squad early next year.

The 34-year-old former hooker doesn't see the disappointments of last season when Wairarapa-Bush finished 11th on the Heartland table as reason to make sweeping changes, either to team personnel or playing styles.

"You look back at the two seasons before and they had good success," he told the Times-Age yesterday. "They had a blueprint which was obviously working well for them but it only takes a team to fall off 5 per cent and things can go the other way pretty quickly. And when that happens it's often the coach who wears it, that's the nature of the business I guess."

Ideally, Syms would like to see his Wairarapa-Bush squad consist solely of local players but that doesn't necessarily mean he will avoid using "imports" at all costs.

For him, the best situation would be identifying where the deficiencies are early on and encouraging any players from outside the region who could fill the holes to play their club rugby here. "The important thing to me is that all our players understand the importance of contributing positively to the rugby community, that they do their union proud on and off the field," he said.

Syms was a good enough player to represent Manawatu and Bay of Plenty at various levels but, when he suffered a neck injury in a scrum during a club game in Bay of Plenty in 2005 - "I still recall hearing the pop " - he decided after recovery that rather than continue to play he would turn his attention to coaching.

"It wasn't a spur-of-the moment decision. I had always liked the idea of coaching anyway," Syms said. "So rather than risk a more serious injury, I thought the time was right to give it a go."

The past few years have seen Syms develop an impressive coaching CV. He took St Kentigern's College first XV to an Auckland secondary schools title, Hutt Old Boys club team to numerous successes in Wellington and, in 2007-08, had a stint as coach of the Thailand sevens and 15-a-side teams, during which the sevens won the major spoils at the South East Asia Games. Last season, he was technical analyst for the Southland Stags before returning to Wellington College to continue his teaching career.

Syms sees taking charge of a Heartland championship side as a "logical progression" for him on the rugby coaching front, and adding to the appeal of the Wairarapa-Bush job was the close connections he already had with the region. Wife Ashley (nee Sturt) is a former Mangamaire Primary School and St Matthew's Collegiate student and the in-laws still farm in the Mangamaire area.

"I"m certainly no stranger to Wairarapa-Bush. I remember playing against them for Manawatu and I've gone to a few of their games since, including last season," he said.

Syms has first-hand experience of coaching teams playing on artificial turf similar to that being installed at Masterton's Memorial Park and describes it as a "wonderful surface" which should be advantageous to the home team.

"It means we can train and play on a surface which is consistently good and it certainly will suit players who like to run on top of the ground, the Sam Monaghans and Inia Katias should absolutely love it," he said.

Rugby is not the only sport in which Syms has made an impact. He has played cricket at senior rep level for Manawatu and Bay of Plenty and made Central Districts A and age group sides. His involvement now is more of an interested spectator but he filled in for Southland Boys High when they were short last year and took a hat-trick.