Tui feeding off Thorn's experience

Thorn, who is the Reds' contact coach, has achieved a lot in his time as a player with the Crusaders and the All Blacks and he is playing an important role in developing some of the Reds' youngsters like Tui.   

"Thorny has accomplished pretty much everything in rugby," Tui told rugby.com.au.

"The pre-season was tough and it was definitely good for myself, as it was my first pre-season.

"The boys put a lot of hard work into it and you can definitely see, in patches, that we are definitely doing what we want and we are playing a much more physical game with Brad Thorn there, showing us."

Meanwhile, the Reds are in Apia, Samoa preparing for their upcoming clash against the Blues and for Tui it has been a special experience due to his Samoan heritage.

Both his parents were born and raised there.

"You see a lot of pictures and here a lot of stories about Samoa from my family and everything is pretty much spot on," he said.

"The people are lovely, the weather is nice and the country is beautiful.

"It's good to experience it for the first time and to do it with all the boys.

"They [the Blues] have a lot of Samoan boys up front so they will be up for it as well."

Source: rugby.com.au