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James O'Connor vers les Crusaders ?

James O'Connor avait annoncé en septembre dernier qu'il quittait les Reds, son équipe depuis 2019. Il devrait toutefois rester dans le Super Rugby, mais aux Crusaders (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images).

En difficulté sur le poste de demi d’ouverture depuis le départ de Richie Mo’Unga au Japon, les Crusaders seraient actuellement en discussion avec James O’Connor, à en croire le NZ Herald.

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Un membre de la franchise de Super Rugby Pacific a confié au journal néo-zélandais que les deux parties étaient en contact en vue de l’annonce des équipes engagées dans la compétition, fin octobre.

L’ancien Wallaby (34 ans, 64 sélections), riche de 127 apparitions en Super Rugby et d’une centaine de matchs dans les championnats européens (notamment en Top 14 sous les couleurs du RC Toulon), serait une recrue de choix pour les Crusaders.

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La franchise de Christchurch a remporté sept trophées de Super Rugby consécutifs sous la houlette de Scott Roberston, désormais sélectionneur des All Blacks. Elle est depuis rentrée dans le rang et cherche à reconstruire une équipe compétitive.

O’Connor était rentré en Australie en 2019 et jouait depuis aux Reds. Mais l’émergence de Tom Lynagh (l’un des fils de la légende Michael Lynagh) et de l’international U20 Harry McLaughlin-Phillips a poussé le joueur ultra polyvalent (il peut jouer du 10 au 15) a chercher un autre point de chute.

En septembre, il indiquait qu’il quittait les Reds pour « saisir des opportunités à l’étranger ». On imaginait alors que l’ancien golden boy du rugby australien serait plutôt en quête d’un contrat lucratif en Europe.

Son avenir devrait plutôt se situer en Nouvelle-Zélande.

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Visionnez gratuitement le documentaire en cinq épisodes “Chasing the Sun 2” sur RugbyPass TV (*non disponible en Afrique), qui raconte le parcours des Springboks dans leur quête pour défendre avec succès leur titre de Champions du monde de rugby

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J
JW 56 minutes ago
How can Scott Robertson revive the All Blacks’ playmaking ‘triple threat’?

Love how you stoke up the fire with these slow burners Nick, great time to let the air into this one too coming into Jordies new home for a few months.


Razor (and possibly Cullen?) is the perfect coach to keep fueling Jordies own flame. Foster on the other hand has to be a people person because he's always trying to douse everyones due to his own lack of enterprise.


I didn't want to nark on the man but we still have Reiks waiting to be ignited as well. His own play when he first moved to center was full of threat and tact. He could cut in just as easily as swing out and had some great ball handling to put people away with. While we haven't seen much more of that since, I think he has at least been working hard on his defence and his books under Foster and Schmidt, and could turn into a Conrad (or even Nonu) one day. I'm not quite so sure Jordie has been making the same progress in the meantime.


I've been really happy with Jordies workons this year however, but that Final was a big learning curve and I've not really sure I've seen the calmness required to pull off Nonu type plays through his career so far. In fact he has often been the opposite and been a bit ropey when he was in more of a playmaker role at 15, I do think he has all the skills and desire to make these sorts of plays though, just having such a wide scope as a 'triple' threat put's a big demand on being able to read the game. So perhaps I might not go too much further than trying to use that big boot, and keeping it simple really. Like Nonu did.


I'm happy with all those 10 and 15 pictures myself, especially the ones where Jordan is playing more of a hand. He is someone who certainly could do with some sort of 'double' threat to help his line breaking ability and I certainly think he has some sort of innate skill to do the right thing. Sadly it's not going to happen in conjunction with Beaudie I don't think. This is going to be retirement. 2nd start back playing with his old courage (he actually did run the ball after all) and he's concussed again, not good.


Trouble is for this team, it could be a completely different 10, 12, 13. That shouldn't stop Razor from encouraging all the options the All Blacks have in those positions, right now. Also looking forward to Perofeta coming into fullback late instead of BB or Dmac going there.

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