Former All Black Frano Botica was Croatia's most famous player as he tried to help them qualify for the Rugby World Cup.

Rugby people. They are the same all over the world. Good people who love the game and provide the enthusiasm and energy that makes it such a great sport.

At Croatian club Ragbi Klub Zagreb, nothing much is different than any small club in New Zealand, apart from skill level. The spirit, the comradeship, the desire to improve, the hard work and the fun are all interwoven into the fabric of the club.

They even possess a hard core of past players who were much better than what they have now and are full of appropriate advice. Some things are certainly ingrained in rugby.

When former Taranaki wing and Croatian seven's rep David Casey was handed the reins at Zagreb, it was time to venture over. Four days of 30 degrees, people to meet, games to watch, practices to attend, discussions to be had and the All Blacks to be live streamed, there has been plenty to do.

Met at the airport by Miro Mandic, the third most capped Croatian international player of all time, I have been lucky enough to meet one of the finest people I have ever come across in eight different rugby playing countries. Even within the club itself they talk of great players who are great people and then there is Mandic who has massive respect throughout Croatian rugby. What a delight he has been.

The team itself contains two Croatian international players in big lock Luka Juresko and openside Zeljko Galic. They lead a mix of old and young and there is still plenty for them to learn. It's going to be challenging and rewarding for Casey.

Within Croatia there is a six team first division competition. Nada, from Split, are the one club who have progressed beyond the amateur approach and who have won the competition every year for the previous 15 years.

Mladost, also from Zagreb, Makaska near Split, Ljubljana from Slovenia and Sinj also compete. The season is split in two with one round completed before early December and a second round beginning in March next year.

A local knockout cup means there could be as few as 11 games or as many as 15 spread over nearly eight months. It's a bit different to be sure but still full of committed rugby people.

With the Croatia Rugby Union operating off a budget about as big as a Mitre 10 coaches' salary, not a lot can be done. The national team play very few games - three before Christmas as part of the European B2 group. To get to a World Cup they need to win B2, then B1, then A2 and finally beat Georgia who are normally the team to go through from the region.

At the local level the club posses an under-18 and under-16 group who seldom have 15 at training and even more disappointingly, seldom play any games because there is no opposition. There are under-12 and under-14 teams who play in occasional tournaments, often necessitating in two local clubs joining together.

Coaching is carried out in local schools by the club coaching co-ordinator who is funded by the Zagreb rugby union. At schools, with no grass fields, children know very little about rugby and the growth is tiny.

With football, handball, basketball, water polo and volleyball taking centre stage, rugby is a very poor relation. Still, nothing will deter the enthusiasm of those involved and as long as they have people of the calibre of Mandic they will stay alive and who knows, may even grow and improve.

I'm sure Casey will have plenty of ideas on how that can happen.