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Peter Russell never planned to become a rugby coach at such an early age, but didn’t squelch at the idea either.

“I’d been coaching the club rugby colts teams for a couple of years after the premier season had finished when, during the pre-season, one of the head coaches suggested I had the skills to take it to the next level,” says Peter.

Being the driven person that he is, Peter took the suggestion very seriously and over the following years went on to attain a Diploma in Business Studies Endorsed in Sports Coaching through Massey University, in order to put down the foundations for his new career.

“I was pretty lucky, I hadn’t even coached at any level and found myself coaching in Wellington’s Premier club rugby competition,” says Peter.

His representative first role saw him coaching the Wellington under 19s and Colts teams, then back to club rugby with Marist St Pats where he stayed for four years and led them to win three titles – not a bad start for a rookie.

Peter then moved back to the Wairarapa, where he was born and raised, and spent four years at Wairarapa Bush. He led them to three NPC finals of which they won two, along with winning the last NPC third division title in 2005 and picking up the inaugural Meads Cup (Heartland) in 2006.  During these years he also coached with Glenn Moore (current Highlanders Coach) with the NZRU Divisional team to Fiji and then in 2006 with Ross Cooper with the Heartland touring team to Argentina.

Peter’s next move was to Hawkes Bay in 2007, where he has gained national recognition by taking them from the bottom to the semi-finals for two years running, much to the delight of the supporters and club. When he took on the role, Peter had every confidence that he could improve their results.

“It was a case of sitting down with the players and asking them where they saw themselves heading, what their goals were and where they wanted to end up,” says Peter. “I knew they had the resources to do it and the support of the Hawkes Bay union and players alike was going to be instrumental to our success. So we hatched a plan to be bigger, stronger and faster than other franchise unions and we did it.”