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Recently Scotland's most capped player, Chris Paterson, and SRU Academy manager Ben Fisher spent a couple of nights down at Christchurch Park passing on some of their vast experience during a couple of coaching sessions.
Paterson and Fisher are both out in Canterbury as guests of the Canterbury Rugby Union's innovative International High Performance Unit programme.
Chris Paterson, or Mossy, as he is affectionately known by his former team-mate (Division One Coach) Matt Mustchin, won the last of his 109 caps in Scotland's Rugby World Cup defeat to England in Auckland last September, hung up his boots just weeks ago after completing his club commitments with Edinburgh.
"I played my last game on May 5 and on May 12 I boarded the plane [to come to Christchurch] in my first day in my new role."
Paterson said he wanted to get stuck in straight away to his new job as a specialist skills coach with the Scottish Rugby Union.
Paterson was "picking up new things" and also discovering that what "we do [in Scotland] is similar to what's been doing over here".
He said he had been amazed at "how open and willing" everyone had been in passing on knowledge.
Ben Fisher, is an ex-pat Wellingtonian, who has been living and playing rugby in Scotland now for over 12years. Fisher, a former loose forward hailed from the Western Suburbs Club in Wellington and represented Wellington throughout age group levels.
Both Scot's spent time with Division One and other specialist Christchurch players handing off their knowledge in their respective areas of expertise. Whilst admittedly many of the players struggled to understand the Scottish accent of Paterson, it was clear that the international language of rugby was enough to get him through his coaching clinics.
The sessions that Paterson and Fisher ran, on kicking and contact (respectively) were very well received by both the players and Division One Coaches John Seque and Matt Mustchin.
A huge thank you goes to both men for their time spent at the club, and we wish them well in their coaching futures.
from left to right: Matt Mustchin (Div1 Forward Coach), Chris Paterson (Former Scotland International), John Seque (Div1 Back Coach), Ben Fisher (SRU Academy Manager)
