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Aaron Cruden to make surprise Super Rugby return in 2020?

Aaron Cruden shows off his short-kicking game for the Chiefs against the Crusaders in Fiji in 2017. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

The ongoing battle for first fives looks set to continue in New Zealand, with Aaron Cruden now reported to be close to signing a deal with the Chiefs.

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Stuff has reported that Cruden and the Chiefs are into the late stages of sussing out a contract which would see the former All Blacks return for the 2020 season.

It’s long been expected that Cruden will shift from the south of France to Japan in the coming year, after a number of injury-riddled seasons for Montpellier.

Supposedly, Cruden’s future contract with Kobe won’t commence until the 2021 Top League season – but his current deal with Montpellier will come to a conclusion at the end of the World Cup. That gives Cruden plenty of time to link up with his old Super Rugby franchise.

2020 is shaping up as an eventful season for the New Zealand Super sides.

Beauden Barrett will shift from the Hurricanes to the Blues but won’t be available until the end of the 2020 Top League season, which finishes on May 9. That means one of Harry Plummer, Otere Black or Stephen Perofeta will be handed the 10 jersey until at least the latter stages of the tournament.

Barrett’s move north means the Hurricanes are lacking an experienced option at first five – though both Jackson Gardon-Bachop and Fletcher Smith are still on the books. The Wellington-based team have been scouring the globe for a replacement for Barrett and it’s believed that Cruden, who made his Super Rugby debut for the Hurricanes, was high on their list of targets.

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It’s understood that Cruden would only be interested in making a return if it was for the Chiefs, however, who helped him cement his spot in the All Blacks.

The Chiefs currently have just Damian McKenzie signed on for next season with their other three first five options, Marty McKenzie, Jack Debreczeni and Tiaan Falcon, all off-contract. McKenzie, who spent most of the season on the sidelines thanks to an ACL injury, has spoken of his preference to play at fullback, however.

Warren Gatland, who will take over as head coach of the Chiefs from next year, will be on the lookout for a young first five who can spearhead the Waikato side’s attack for the coming years – but a seasoned pro will also be required. Cruden would fit the bill for that latter category and could help ease an up-and-comer into Super Rugby.

Rivez Reihana has shown plenty of promise for Waikato in this year’s Mitre 10 Cup but has been used exclusively at fullback. Other options include re-contracting Falcon – who is just 22 – or trying to lure one of the Blues’ trio south.

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Elsewhere around the country, Mitch Hunt will head to the Highlanders in search of more game time. He’s stuck behind Richie Mo’unga at the Crusaders and Brett Cameron is likely the next in line to the throne.

Hunt will compete with Josh Ioane for the starting role at the Highlanders but could find himself shifted to the back to cover for Ben Smith, who is heading to France next year.

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

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