He had coached his sons’ junior teams at Prebbleton and worked as an assistant with Ellesmere age-group and Canterbury Metro sides, but it took him two attempts to apply for the Lincoln Combined head coaching role he now holds.
“I saw the ad go up, and I didn’t really want to be a head coach,” he said.
“I really just enjoyed the specialty stuff – attack or defence or scrums or whatever. Then they re-advertised, and I just threw my name in the hat.”
Britain was named as Lincoln Combined’s head coach in December. The side is playing in this year’s Miles Toyota Championship after being relegated following Rolleston College’s decision to enter a standalone first XV.
“There’s a clear direction on what they want to achieve, and my sons (aged eight and 11) are in the zone for Lincoln High School, so there’s a high possibility they’re going there,” Britain said.
“I’d love to help implement a rugby programme that means kids can stay in the country and don’t have to go into the big schools to play good rugby.”
Rolleston College head coach Ethan Harrison had already spent three years involved in the school’s rugby programme before taking charge of its inaugural first XV
He had previously coached the school’s under 14.5 and under 16 teams.
His sons Hunter, 17, and Jacob, 15, are part of Rolleston’s first XV.
“It’s awesome – I can help them develop and watch them enjoy their footy with their mates and achieve their goals, which is really cool,” Harrison said.
Harrison stepped away from playing, where he most recently turned out for Rolleston in division 2, to focus on coaching.
He said Rolleston’s decision to go it alone after being part of the combined team since 2017 came down to growing player numbers.
“It’s been the goal of the college for a while now to build towards this point, and I think they feel like the player numbers at the college warrant stepping into that space now, rather than waiting for perfect timing.
“We’re not expecting a perfect season or anything like that, but we think this is a really good group that can be here for a couple of years, some of them longer, and build a good trajectory for what the next few seasons are going to look like.”
“You can’t stop the boys from looking at that,” Britain said.
“That was our first little goal, to make sure we won the pre-season match against them.”
Lincoln claimed a 35-13 win in pre-season.
Harrison said plenty of players on both sides already knew each other through years of playing together or against one another.
“A lot of these guys in our team this year have played against a lot of the boys in the Lincoln Combined team for a number of years, so there’s been a bit of a rivalry between Rolleston College and Lincoln over the last couple of years, which is always great.
“Those same guys are moving up into the first XV space this year, so that’s probably one we’ll enjoy.”
Lincoln open their season against Roncalli Aoraki Combined at Lincoln High School on Saturday.
Rolleston have a first-round bye before facing Cashmere High School away on May 23.
Britain said his personal benchmark for the season was making the final.
“We know the outcome everyone is striving for, and for me it’s probably getting to the big dance.
“If we can get to a final, then to me that’s probably a pass mark, but if we don’t get that far, then it’s probably not quite a successful season.
“I want to make sure I’ve helped build good morale and good habits around working hard for each other. Hard work does bring rewards,” he said.
Harrison said a playoff berth would be a positive, but his main focus was building a competitive foundation.
“We feel like we’re ready to be here, so I think our pass mark would be the boys getting into a programme of what first XV looks like and being able to say we competed at this level as a new team in the competition.
“From where they are now to where we hope they’ll be at the end of the season, it’s about good young men being able to play as a team and seeing that growth from pre-season through to the end of the year.
"That’s our main gauge of success.”
