Former Highlanders and Hurricanes flanker Ben Herring has joined the Highlanders coaching staff.
Herring (35), who played for the Highlanders in 2003 and the Hurricanes in 2004-05 before heading overseas, has joined the franchise as a resource coach.
He will be working in the pre-season with the Highlanders players in and around the contact and tackle-ball area to seek improvements in that part of the game.
Whether he continues that role into the season proper would be decided at the finish of the pre-season, Highlanders chief executive Roger Clark said yesterday.
Herring joins head coach Jamie Joseph, assistant coaches Tony Brown and Scott McLeod, forwards coach Clarke Dermody, and high performance coach Jon Preston in the Highlanders coaching ranks.
Herring was a high-energy flanker who first made an impact for the Alhambra-Union club side while studying in Dunedin.
He played for Southland and then for Wellington as well as playing Super rugby.
Herring left New Zealand in 2006 to play for Leicester in England but some heavy head knocks forced him into early retirement before the age of 30.
Slipping seamlessly into coaching, Herring first coached in England at Leicester before moving to Japan and then Canada, where he helped coach the national side and the national sevens team.
He returned to Dunedin earlier this year, and helped coach Otago development sides in the past season.
He has been appointed head coach for the Alhambra-Union premier side next year.
The Highlanders came together last week to begin preparations for next season.
The squad, minus its All Blacks, had its first training run out on the paddock yesterday, training under the roof at Forsyth Barr Stadium in the afternoon.
The team will train through until December 22. It will then have a two weeks off for Christmas before coming back to start training again on January 11.
Its first competition game is against the Blues in Auckland on February 26.