Kane Jury has been appointed to co-ordinate sports at King's High School, with an emphasis on high performance, and run the school's rugby programme.
Jury (35), who will coach the school's first XV, was born in Clinton, schooled in Dunedin and has had a career that has taken him to plenty of places in the rugby world.
He is a trained primary school teacher but has spent much of his life outside the classroom and on the sports field.
A halfback in his playing days, Jury went to Hong Kong in 2005 for what he thought would be a short spell playing rugby for the Hong Kong Cricket Club.
"I went there for the rugby season and intended to be there for six months. I ended up staying for 10 years,'' he said.
"I did my ACL in my knee and went and saw the doctor. He said he could probably hold a third of it together and you could still play. But it was on artificial turfs over there, I had just started a new job so I thought I would get into coaching.''
It was a wise choice because that has been his career path.
For the past two years, Jury has been the fulltime assistant coach of the Hong Kong sevens team, which has been performing well in Asia.
He has coached teams from under-14 to senior level for Hong Kong.
Hong Kong held a sevens tournament every March and Jury said the tournament had a big impact on rugby in the former British colony.
"The Hong Kong sevens really funds the rugby union. Those three days are ridiculous ... the sevens programme for the men and women in Hong Kong is fulltime now. They are the first fulltime sports there so have all the high-performance equipment and programmes right on their doorstep.
"When I first got there, there was like five or six tertiary teams. Now there are 22.
"The Chinese culture is very academic-driven, so that can make it hard to keep kids involved. But if you get the right people and put them in the right places, and do it safely, then you can keep them.
"Sevens is such an exciting game, just great with all the space you can have. The women's game has had massive growth.''
Jury said after 10 years overseas, it was time for him, with his wife Emma and two children Hugo (6) and Luka (4), to come home.
He looked round for opportunities and the position at King's High School came up for the Otago Boys' High School old boy.
"I just look around and the resources we have here in Dunedin are phenomenal. People open their doors to you and are totally welcoming.''
He said the school was about creating well-balanced pupils and he hoped to give them tools they could use later in life.
"Technically, tactically we can all teach the same thing. Mentally, though, is where we can make the difference, put the strategies in place to help the pupils so when they are faced with situations they know how to respond.''
The school offers 32 sports, with an emphasis on six core team sports - rugby, football, basketball, hockey, cricket and touch.
He said King's High School wanted to have four flagship rugby sides - first XV, second XV, under-15 and under-14 - and coaches had already been appointed for next season.
