Crusader back with side in technical role | Canterbury Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Canterbury

Canterbury rugby hasn't put the Hammer down yet ? even though favourite son Mark Hammett won't be seen on the playing field again.

The rugged hooker had to retire with a neck injury last year, but he's back with the Crusaders as a technical advisor helping the forwards.

Hammett wants a coaching career, particularly mentoring younger players at this stage. He's also working with the elite 19 to 23-year-old players in the Academy team, and will coach Marist's colts.

The doughty 32-year-old gave Canterbury rugby a decade of wonderful service, but after neck surgery last April learned he could not play again.

Surgery meant to take an hour and a half took more than four hours ? "they weren't sure how bad it was until they got in there." It left Hammett with the left side of his body affected.

Initially Hammett was in too much pain to worry about the implications of the injury for his rugby.

"The worst thing was not being able to contribute off the field which I've always done," he said.

"As a front rower, you live with pain all the time and are often on the field when you're not 100 per cent. It's just something you deal with.

"To have something that crippling was pretty hard, not just on me but on the family."

However, recuperating let him assess getting his body right after all its rugby rigours, and get more balance in his life, he said.

One benefit of his premature retirement has been spending more time with his family. He has a six-year-old son, Billie, and a daughter Nova, nearly four.

He and wife Tash have started running seriously, and plan to do the Arrowtown half marathon in April.

Hammett is one of the last Canterbury players who had a career before rugby. He concreted with his father. It was strenuous work, but after 10 years of pro rugby he confidently says it was "nowhere as hard as footie."

He also bought into his brother's sheet metal engineering business a few years ago, looking at that as a future career, but the neck rules out that.

While he looks back with great pride at all his successes with the Crusaders, perhaps the most special rugby moment for Hammett came in Auckland in 2003 when he wasn't even on the field.

That was when the All Blacks reclaimed the Bledisloe Shield after six years. Hammett made his debut the year they lost it, and seeing it reclaimed was "fairly emotional," he said.