Crusaders prop Wyatt Crockett is hard at work learning his trade as a tighthead as part of a new ploy to become a regular for the All Blacks.

The 29-year-old is a specialist loosehead, but believes the ability to prop up both sides of the scrum would aid his All Black aspirations.

"I've put a bit of work into tighthead in the off-season and hopefully will get to have a crack in some of the trial games," Crockett told Sportal. "I'm just starting to move into some live scrummaging at training.

"I tinkered with it last year but just doing more and more of it makes you start to feel a lot more comfortable.

"When I first got in there it felt like throwing left-handed – it was really that different."

While Crockett is working on the changes to his scrumming technique, he won't persevere at tighthead at the expense of vacating the loosehead side.

"We're not short of tightheads and if it works that's great but if it doesn't then my main focus is still to be the best loosehead I can be and I don't want to detract from what I'm doing there."