Almost three decades of rugby league coaching have done little to age Alan "Jacko" Jackson who weathered the early-summer heat on a return to Hawke's Bay in style as national rugby league women's championship side Mid-Central Vipers beat a Hawke's Bay XIII in Hastings today.
Jackson, from Taranaki, was still playing league when he took over coaching of the Hawke's Bay men's Unicorns team in 1991 and led a major turnaround in the game in the region.
In his first season, the Unicorns, having barely won a game in the previous 4-5 years, won 7 of 8 games the single defeat being by just two points against Northland in a national Division 2 decider in Whangarei.
The following season he fronted for a Lion Red XIII in a match against the-then glamour NRL side Manly Sea Eagles, in front of more than 11,000 fans at Nelson Park, Hastings.
"It's always nice to be back in Hawke's Bay," he said at Mitre 10 Park, the regional sports complex with superseded Nelson Park as it was levelled to make way for a shopping complex. Rubbing the back of his neck and saying: "I think I've got a bit of sunburn."