Former All Black player and Highlanders coach Jamie Joseph was in town yesterday to pass on his extensive rugby knowledge to Wanganui Collegiate players.
Joseph jets off to Japan next week to begin his job as head coach of the national team.
At Collegiate he spoke with the school's under-14and under-15 players who have a final and tournament this weekend, respectively.
He also took them for a training session on the school grounds.
Joseph gave an insight into how he turned the bottom placed Highlanders into a championship winning side.
An example he gave was the toll an extensive travel schedule took on the Highlanders during this year's finals series.
"All those sorts of things were physically draining on the players but we didn't talk about that because we thought if we talked about that we'd end up throwing in the towel before we had started playing.
"(And) that's no different at the Highlanders level than it is at your level."
He also talked about playing against quality opposition and attacking it like a boxing match by breaking it down into 12 rounds.
"You might not have a knockout punch but you will have mental ability to keep fighting for the whole 12 rounds."
Joseph also encouraged the students to keep studying if they wanted to and not to rely on a rugby career which could come to an end overnight with a serious injury.
"That's why you can't put all your eggs into the rugby basket, that's for sure."
