Iain Cleland has chanced his arm at a number of sports. Good enough to be listed in the Scotland volleyball squad for the 2005 World Championships, he has also played basketball and rugby competitively.

But while two of his former Scotland volleyball team-mates - Mark McGivern and Andy Benson - turn out for the Great Britain team, Cleland is making his mark in sport having given up playing at a relatively early age.

Four years ago, he decided to graduate to coaching and he is currently working as assistant strength and conditioning coach to The Blues rugby team - Jonah Lomu's former club.

He has just completed his first season with the Auckland-based club who regularly play in front of 20,000 fans in the Super 14, a league made up of teams from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

Cleland, who worked as a conditioning coach at the Scottish Rugby Union's national academy, almost came across the job by accident having opted to spend some time travelling.

"When I first came to New Zealand just over a year ago, I had a job at North Harbour rugby first which is in Auckland region and a position came up at the Blues," the 32 year-old recalls.

"I wasn't going to go for it but a couple of people told me to put my hat in the ring.

"A few things fell in my favour - it was quite a short contract initially which put off a few of the big guns over here. My interview went fine and I was offered the job.

"Hopefully, I'll start again with them in October as I'm just sorting out my contract just now but I expect everything to be fine.

"It's been a really good experience. I don't travel much with the team as a big part of my job is to look after the injured players and the guys who haven't been picked so I tend to stay back and work closely with the physios.

"Preparing the players for the new season is another big part of what I'll be doing. The head trainer here is ex-Navy of 25 years and we put the pre-season programme together between us and work the guys pretty hard in October and November and it's a really busy time."

Cleland played volleyball with City of Glasgow Ragazzi and Glasgow Mets but stopped playing at the age of 26 and tried his hand at basketball.

"I've always enjoyed it as a sport and wanting to try it before I got much older," he explains.

"I played with a couple of teams but at that point I was starting to work a bit more and the jobs I was wanting to do didn't fit in with that and so I went more towards coaching and I started to look towards those type of jobs from the age of 28.

"I played a couple of games of rugby but nothing serious but I started working for the SRU when I was at Telford College and Ken McEwan mentioned they needed someone seconded to Glasgow Warriors.

"I was there for two seasons but then moved to the national academy at Murrayfield.
"Working there gave me a good idea of what was expected at that level. I was right in the mixer and I got to see a lot of things going on. It gave me the confidence to apply for jobs elsewhere."

Cleland has been taken by the enthusiasm for sport in New Zealand and how many children are active.

“It is not a question of having the best of facilities but there is a determination to make the most of any opportunity.

"They have good facilities over here but don't have the money to spend on sports technology that we have in Britain," he continues.

"The difference is kids are a lot more active, that is what struck us. It is not just the climate as it can get very cold over here but even the young girls are extremely active, it's just something in their culture.

"We noticed that they just run about with bare feet so it's not an economic thing. Being involved with the Blues, we've had approaches from schools to see if we have any spare pairs of boots.

"A lot of families share boots. There is a more innocent side here and they just love sport - they love rugby and with the All Whites qualifying for the World Cup, football's massive here now too.

"The top sports story is usually rugby but even on a weekend when the All Blacks are playing, the main news is on the football team arriving in South Africa for the World Cup.

"There is a national pride but I've also found there is a local community pride."

RM
© Copyright In The Winning Zone, MMX, All Rights Reserved