The show is less about sports and more about men's health. Photo: Supplied
Union and league are putting their differences aside in the latest season of a TV show which sees ex professional rugby players get back in the game.
Match Fit - returning to TV3 for a fourth season tonight - is getting both codes together after previously focusing on one per season.
The show is less about sports, and more about men's health - highlighting the power of friendship, talking, and physical exercise in managing mental stress and distress.
Ex-All Black Piri Weepu is back on the show for a third time, league player Clinton Toopi crossed the Tasman for his second season, and former All Black coach Sir Graham Henry is back for his third season of Match Fit.
All three agreed that the central point of the show is fit in body, fit in mind, and can hopefully a source of inspiration, Weepu told RNZ's Nine to Noon.
"To inspire them just pretty much to either get moving or even get talking, making sure that they're not feeling alone."
The show is a message to the middle-aged men of Aotearoa, Sir Graham said.
For Toopi the programme is a chance to get the competitive juices flowing again. Photo: Supplied
"I think there's a huge correlation between the physical and the mental. If you do things physically and get fitter, I think you get better mentally."
For Toopi the programme is a chance to get the competitive juices flowing again.
"Being around these boys, these men, that's enabled me to reconnect with that competitive nature, we've all got ingrained in us as former professional athletes."
Life after top level sport is often a challenge, Weepu said.
"I can't speak for anyone other than myself, it's definitely something that we never prepare for.
"Because we want to try and ride this wave as long as we can. And then once that wave sort of crashed, you don't really have a plan in place."
Weepu is still involved in the game as a coach and mentor at Wellington College, a challenge he relishes, he said.
"I absolutely love it, it gives me purpose every day to go to school, and try and help out as much as I can with the students that are struggling, if there's a few that don't like showing up to school, what can I do to try and help them out."
Sir Graham learnt about handling pressure at the highest level as a coach, he said.
"I had some mental health problems when I was coaching Wales and the British and Irish lions. And that was the biggest learning curve and if and it changed my life for the better.
"But I was fortunate also I had some very good people that I could connect with and talk to about it."
And a big part of that plan is staying active, he said.
"I can't stress more the need to be physical, because that releases a lot of mental tension. And you feel good.
"So a combination of good mentors, a good physical fitness program that helps you mentally and just getting away every now and again and getting your toes in the sand."
