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Aaron Cruden confirms Mitre 10 Cup availability

Aaron Cruden. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

The 2020 Mitre 10 Cup will be unlike any provincial competition New Zealanders have witnessed for some time with a slew of current and former All Blacks expected to be on show due to the postponement of rugby around the rest of the world.

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Aaron Cruden, who has returned to NZ for a one-season stint with the Chiefs en route to touching down in Japan, is unlikely to feature in the provincial season, however.

While Cruden has been weighing up the possibility of donning the green and white hoops of Manawatu for some time, he has now indicated that playing in the Mitre 10 Cup is unlikely.

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Long-time NZ rugby journalist Ross Karl is joined by two players each week to discuss the ins and outs of the great game in New Zealand.

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Long-time NZ rugby journalist Ross Karl is joined by two players each week to discuss the ins and outs of the great game in New Zealand.

“I said while I would love to, at this stage and where things are at, it’s not a possibility, unfortunately, for the season coming,’’ Cruden told Stuff News.

With Cruden contracted to one of the Japan Top League clubs for 2021 (rumoured to be as Dan Carter’s replacement at the Kobelco Steelers), the insurance costs of bringing the former All Black into the Manawatu set-up would be astronomical. With the Top League pre-season likely to get underway as early as next month, fitting the Mitre 10 Cup into Cruden’s calendar would also be almost impossible.

“Ngans [Ngani Laumape] actually sent me a message to ask me about playing Mitre 10 for Manawatu,” Cruden told RugbyPass earlier in the season.

“At this stage, we’re not really sure, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens with any rugby and what that sort of framework looks like and then we’ll just go from there.”

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Evidently, the challenges of playing in the Mitre 10 Cup have become insurmountable. Manwatu will still likely be able to field a highly competitive back division, however.

Cruden’s younger brother, Stewart, who is also a first five, was set to play at the Under 20 World Championship this year before it was cancelled due to the global pandemic. He could partner Aaron Smith in the halves (who hasn’t featured for Manawatu since 2011) – though the Hurricanes’ Jamie Booth will also be available for the Turbos.

Otere Black, meanwhile, could potentially be on the move away from Manwatu to the Bay of Plenty – though the Blues man has said “nothing is settled”.

Nehe Milner-Skudder, having signed a two-year deal with the Highlanders, is another who could be back playing for Manawatu while Rob Thompson will likely be a major presence in the mid-field.

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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