In a harried 2019 meeting at Sydney Airport, amid diagrams and scribbles on a scrap piece of paper, former All Blacks coach Steve Hansen convinced Simon Cron he needed to leave NSW Waratahs and follow him to Japan to become Toyota's new head coach. It was an unexpected detour on Cron's journey to being a Super Rugby head coach, but one which sees him take charge of Western Force with more experience and plenty of lessons under his belt.
Making his way through the Sydney Shute Shield system, Cron had taken over the Waratahs assistant position in 2017 with the understanding he'd be next in line for the head coaching role. Forced to bide his time for another year after Daryl Gibson was handed a shock one-year contract extension ahead of the 2019 season, a surprise call-up from one of the world's best coaches had Cron rethinking his plans.
Two-and-a-half COVID hit years later, the New Zealander would make his return to Australia and reunite with his family, signing on as Force coach for the 2023 season with no regrets and even greater ambition.
"Looking back on it, it was the right thing, and it was the right time," Cron told ESPN ahead of his first season as a Super Rugby head coach. "I mean COVID created an interesting time for everybody, but definitely, the things I can take out of Japan and the learnings will help me for life, both in sport and outside of it.
"I think coaches get better at coaching by coaching and the main reasons for heading to Japan we're all about learning. Steve is the best, or one of the best, coaches in world sport so I think learning from him is only going to be beneficial for the long term.
"One of the things someone said to me years ago was to put yourself in an uncomfortable environment to force yourself to evolve. And I tell you right now, going to Japan to coach is an uncomfortable environment and it forced me to evolve."
Describing his time at Verblitz as taking on a "different beast", Cron was forced to coach through interpreters, learning to simplify his messages and enjoy all the challenges presented to him.
"It is an absolutely different beast and with different challenges; you're coaching through interpreters, so you've really got to be able to peel back the way you deliver [a message] to make sure that it's simple and precise. That has to be your philosophy as a coach, and even before going to Japan it was, so it made me grind it down even more.
"A very smart man once said to me that if you come off the field and the players say 'hey, geez that's simple' then you've done your job, whereas if they're coming off the field going 'how does that work and I'm not understanding it' then you haven't, and I think that's a really good measure of your ability to get your message across because if it's simple we can do it fast.
"In Super Rugby and international rugby, it's all about time and space, you need to be able to execute with less time and space the higher you go, so if we can simplify life for the players, that's a win.
"It was a really big challenge, but a really good one."
Cron, a student of the game, is known for his intense mindset, a trait he shares with Hansen and returning Wallabies coach Eddie Jones, is constantly taking on messages from coaches he's met around the world including dual World Cup winner Wayne Smith, who taught him to embrace his 'hard edge'.
"I definitely am intense around standards and expectations of the people within our environment, so I have high standards of the team, myself, my coaching staff, my medical team and for us to hold the players to a high standard we have to deliver in that area too," the Force coach told ESPN.
"I definitely will make it crystal clear I won't let us drop our standards so that's probably what you see in Steve [Hansen] and I haven't had a lot to do with Eddie, but it sounds like he's pretty hard on standards and expectations of those people as well so there could be some like-mindedness there.
"A few years ago when I was working with NSW I flew over to Japan for my own learning and I went and watched Wayne Smith coach and one of the things he said to me [was] 'Crono, head coaches and coaches in general need to have a bit of a sharp edge to be successful' and he showed he's got a sharp edge to him on the field and you can see how effective that was. That's a highlight I took out of it and I think it's actually a positive thing. You're not an idiot about it, but having a sharp edge, sometimes it's really important to the standards and not drop."
Cron secured the big signing of Wallabies hooker Folau Fainga'a before he'd even returned to the country, a recruitment drive that also netted former Rebels captain Michael Wells, Reds inside back Hamish Stewart and Chiefs flyer Chase Tiatia, while the coach also retained prop Santiago Medrano and Feleti Kaitu'u.
Boasting a young squad with added firepower, Cron is determined to bring something different to a franchise that has struggled for success since its inception in 2006, while they won just four from 14 and failed to make the top 8 in 2022.
"In terms of squad we've got a good mix," Cron told ESPN. "We're definitely slightly younger than they were last year. Obviously with Folau [Fainga'a] coming in he's been a great asset for us recently, as have a number of boys that have come into this environment.
"Our whole mindset is just every day at training is the most important day for us. The boys are learning a lot, they're going through a lot of work and they've got a lot of new people around them too, like our new S&Cs, new coaches. There's a good mix of people there and we're looking forward to going at it.
"The way we want to play is clear, we want to be a high skilled team, use the ball, make the defenses think and then get off the line defensively, so there's a lot we're working on, but you'll definitely see some new names and new people.
"I think for us we're still the Force that represents W.A., the players, whether they are originally from here are not, are massive on 'these are the people who we represent, and this is the land we represent' so you know there will be something different from us. Every team, every year should supply something different and we will definitely do that."