The NZ Barbarians club is looking to make an annual event of it after the "phenomenal success" of its inaugural interactive rugby coaching clinic held on Sunday.
More than 200 coaches from as far afield as Bay of Plenty converged on Cornwall Park to soak up some key technical tips and coaching advice from the likes of Graham Henry, All Blacks scrum doctor Mike Cron, and ITM Cup coaches Paul Feeney of Auckland and Steve Jackson of North Harbour.
"The response was phenomenal," said key driver and Barbarians member Terry Horne, himself a former successful St Paul's First XV coach. "We started out thinking there would be about 60, and more than 200 turned up."
Horne says the clinic, which has a key link to the Barbarians' desire to promote and foster grassroots rugby, should become a fixture on the calendar and may even expand.
Henry looked at defence patterns, and then there was a coach rotation including Scott Pierce, now based in Japan. Areas focused on included tackle, catch and pass, and cleanout techniques, back attack, and set-piece domination, followed by a Q and A, stimulating plenty of rugby thought and debate, which continued into the bar afterwards.