Rugby: Canes job focus for ex-Bay coach Russell

IT'S typical Peter Russell ... when the former Hawke's Bay Magpies rugby coach sets himself a goal nothing else matters.

His latest goal is the Hurricanes head coach role and he doesn't have a back up plan.

"My sole focus is an interview for the Hurricanes job ... if I get one," Russell said during a spell between training sessions with his Newcastle Falcons side at Kingston Park.

It's raining yet again but the weather conditions aren't among the personal reasons Russell alluded to when he announced his resignation from the Falcons head coach role last month after two seasons at the helm. The third of his children and first boy is due in August and he knows New Zealand is a better place to raise youngsters than Britain.

Russell and Wellington ITM Cup head coach and New Zealand under-20s head coach Chris Boyd must rank as favourites for the Hurricanes job, but Russell, who will return to the Bay on May 18, isn't regarding an interview as a given. He has been impressed with the New Zealand conference leaders' form of late.

"They are playing with really good controlled passion. I won't need to put the broom through the squad if I got the job, their results are very pleasing."

Russell said his British stint had been a major boost to his coaching CV: "You don't get the travel like you do in Super Rugby but it's intense rugby week in, week out against international sides. You're playing in four different competitions and often in front of 20,000-plus crowds. There's no respite and you're taking on teams from Italy, Romania, France and Ireland."

During the 2012-13 season, the Falcons lost two games on their way to promotion to the Aviva Premiership. With two games remaining in this season's Premiership against the Wasps this weekend and an Exeter Chiefs side, who are likely to include one of his former Magpies captains Jason Shoemark, the following weekend the Falcons are 11th on the points table.

"We've had a few injuries in key positions this season. We haven't been able to name our top 23 once and we haven't got the depth of other Premiership teams," Russell explained.

One major difference he has noticed between British rugby and the first class scene in New Zealand is that it isn't uncommon to have players in the 35-36 age bracket which is no longer regular in New Zealand.

At the other end of the age scale, Russell said he has kept a close eye on developments in the Bay and he said it had been pleasing to see Hawke's Bay age group products Ihaia West and Brad Weber selected by the Blues and Chiefs respectively.

As was the case when Russell left the Bay he won't be short of admirers when he leaves Kingston Park.

Falcons rugby director and former British Lions and England No8 Dean Richards said Russell will be "a huge loss to the squad".

"In my years of being involved in the game I've never come across anyone with such an in-depth understanding of the game and an appetite for learning like Peter's," Richards added.

References like this will be valuable should he score that eagerly awaited interview.

A three-time Hawke's Bay coach-of-the-year award winner, Russell, coached the Magpies for five seasons from 2007 to 2011 before his surprise axing in October 2011. With former Manu Samoa assistant coach and Hawke's Bay's 2012 coach-of-the-year award winner and current Chiefs assistant coach Tom Coventry, Russell, guided the Magpies to three consecutive semifinal finishes in the old Air New Zealand Cup from 2007-09, a disappointing eighth finish in the 2010 ITM Cup and to victory in the 2011 ITM Cup Championship final to secure promotion to the 2012 premiership.

An assistant coach with the Highlanders from November 2009 until October 2011, Russell, had Heartland Championship success with Wairarapa Bush and won several Wellington club titles before arriving in the Bay.