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A new generation of Red and Black rugby players is going to benefit from the return to Canterbury of genial giant Dave Hewett.

After two seasons playing for Edinburgh, Hewett is home again as the Crusaders' new professional development manager.

The 36-year-old looks fit enough to still be playing, but has no desire to. This year he had an operation on his neck.

"They found the discs were buggered and they fused three vertebra together - I could play rugby again, but to be honest I don't want to," he said.

"My body's telling me to give it up. I've played every year since I was five, apart from three years in Hungary as a teenager."

Instead Hewett, who has commerce and management degrees, is assisting the development of Canterbury's talented young players on and off the field. And probably few in rugby have better credentials for the job - he worked in the real world before becoming a rugby late bloomer. He did not make his Canterbury debut until he was 27, and shared that occasion against Waikato with another front row newcomer, Greg Somerville.

It might have been a late start, but Hewett went on to enjoy every honour you can in New Zealand rugby - Super, NPC, and Ranfurly Shield triumphs and 24 All Black caps - before going to Scotland right after winning the last Super 12 final. His Edinburgh team played their matches at Murrayfield, but 5500 was a big turnout - and rather lost in the 67,000-seat stadium. His final match was against Ulster in Belfast on May 12. While he has no desire to play again, Hewett misses the environment, the camaraderie, and the banter.

However, after joining the former Canterbury forwards mafia at Stevens St and Rugby Park, there's bound to be plenty of the latter. Former fullback Rob Deans is outnumbered by Tony Thorpe, Matt Sexton, Mark Hammett, Angus Gardiner, Steve Lancaster, and now Hewett.

"It (the forwards) is where all the hard work is done, and most of the intelligence!" says Hewett of the forwards' takeover.

"The backs are too busy doing their hair."

Hewett's new job (he follows Gardiner and Lancaster in the role) takes in the whole Crusaders franchise, although primarily Canterbury and Tasman with their professional NPC bases.

"It's about making sure the players make the most of their opportunities on and off the field," he said. "&preparing; them for life after rugby while they're playing, and making them better people in the process."

In the two years he's been away a new crop of players has come through. Some like Wyatt Crockett were in the wider training group when he played, but "others I'd never even heard of."

He's wasted no time catching up on that, and his brief also covers some scrum and front row coaching.