Lennox keen to use experience

Guy Lennox is harking back to his own secondary school days as he embarks on a new coaching career path with Wanganui Collegiate School's 1st XV.

The former representative player and former coach of the Wanganui Heartland team will co-coach the Collegiate team with Barry Touzel this season. This year will be only the second season the Collegiate 1st XV will compete in the national secondary school competition. Last season the school finish seventh.

"I haven't had much to do with coaching schoolboy rugby, so it's a wee bit of a challenge," Lennox said yesterday.

"We've had two or three sessions so far, but not with a full squad. We haven't got our full 15-a-side team yet. We've mainly been working with the original 1st and 2nd XV players to see what we've got to work with. Many of them play other sports and are pretty good rowers and track and field athletes. They're not overly big players, but many of them are quick so we'll try and work out how best we can utilise them."

Lennox said he vividly recalls his school rugby days under coach Peter Irvine in Wanganui.

"Peter was a hard coach and could get quite grumpy. I hope I'm not as scary to the boys as Peter was to us back then," he joked.

"I will certainly be calling on some of those memories as the season progresses," he said.

The first match of the season for Collegiate will be an away fixture against Hato Paora College in Feilding on May 15.