Nick White is Auckland's new rugby head coach, stepping up from the forwards portfolio to replace the Blues-bound Paul Feeney in a move driven by the need for continuity after a fine ITM Cup season by a young side.
The 41-year-old takes his first head coaching role, but it will be a popular appointment. Since he hung the boots up in 2008 he has immersed himself in a variety of set-piece and forwards assistant roles with the Blues and Auckland, not to mention as an New Zealand Rugby resource coach with teams such as the New Zealand Under 20s. An undemonstrative character, he has proven an astute operator in the dark arts of scrummaging, notwithstanding some of Auckland's issues there late in the last ITM Cup.
White left King's College in 1991 where he was a useful left-arm medium pacer who bagged more than his share of wickets for the First XI. But he was also in the First XV, from where he launched his career as a solid prop capable of playing either side of the scrum. The last of his 84 games for Auckland came in the poor 2008 season, where they placed 11th, but he can look back on NPC titles in 2002-03, 2005 and 2007, plus a Super title with the Blues in 2003.
It is not widely known that he was a goal-kicking prop, following the likes of Steve Watt in the 1970s, and landed a final goal as his Waitemata club won the 2003 Gallaher Shield.
