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‘An honour’: Super Rugby champion signs on with Western Force for 2024

Ben Funnell of the Crusaders (C) is congratulated by team mates after scoring a try during the round eight Super Rugby match between the Crusaders and the Sunwolves at AMI Stadium on April 14, 2017 in Christchurch, New Zealand. (Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)

Former Crusaders hooker Ben Funnell is the latest player to head across the ditch and sign out west after penning a deal with the Force for the upcoming 2024 Super Rugby Pacific season.

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Funnell, 33, represented the Crusaders 89 times from 2011 to 2019 and also played an integral role in Canterbury’s run to New Zealand’s National Provincial Competition semi-finals last year.

The New Zealander adds invaluable experience to this Force outfit, with Funnell contributing to five NPC-winning teams with Canterbury and also the Crusaders’ Super Rugby triumph in 2017.

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During that winning year with the then-Scott Robertson-coached side, Funnell scored five tries in 16 games –  which included an appearance in the final against the Lions in Johannesburg.

“Joining this esteemed organisation is an honour, and I am genuinely thrilled about the opportunities ahead,” Funnell said in a statement.

“I am eager to contribute my skills, passion and dedication to the team’s success.

“I look forward to forging strong bonds with my teammates and making meaningful strides on the rugby field. Here’s to an exciting and successful journey with the Western Force.”

Funnell adds depth to the Western Force’s options at hooker with the Kiwi set to compete with Wallaby Feleti Kaitu’u and former Waratah Tom Horton for places in the matchday 23.

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Head coach Simon Cron is looking forward to seeing how Funnell’s “knowledge and experience” can help the Force during the upcoming season.

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“The hooker position is one we’re trying to build depth in,” Cron added.

“We’ve got some exciting talent in that position in our Fortescue Academy who we think will be great in the future, but Ben’s recruitment provides someone in the interim who can add to the group and the culture with his knowledge and experience.”

Funnell joins former Maori All Blacks lock Tom Franklin out west. Franklin, who won a Super Rugby title with the Highlanders in 2015, resumed training with the Force last month.

Wallabies Ben Donaldson and Nic White are other marquee recruits for the Force as they look to take the next step by making the finals in 2024.

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2 Comments
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David 275 days ago

thats great to see he will be playing super rugby in australia

F
Forward pass 275 days ago

A good solid worker as a player. he will be great for the younger guys to see his work ethic.

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Tom 2 hours ago
Borthwick, it's time to own up – Andy Goode

The problem for me isn't the pragmatic playstyle, it's that there is no attacking gameplan whatsoever.


I've got no issue with a methodical, kick heavy, defense centric gameplan. That playstyle won England our only world cup and it's won SA 4 of them. However! You can play in a pragmatic manner but you have to still play heads-up rugby and have the ability to turn it on when you manufacture prime attacking situations. England work very hard to get in the right areas of the pitch and have no idea how to convert when they get there, hence we tried and missed 3 drop goals as we were completely impotent in the 22. I've not seen any improvement in our attack in the last 4-5 years. The only time we got close to the tryline was from an interception, it's embarrassing. I don't know what Richard Wigglesworth is getting paid for.


I agree that England should have found a way to close out that game. Being able to grind out tough games is critical but I'd argue that being unable to string more than a couple of passes together without dropping it and finding a way to get over the gainline is even more important... But frustratingly, they don't seem interested. All you hear is about how close we are to bring a great team, we just need to execute a bit better. I don't see it. I see a team who are very physical, very pragmatic who do some stuff really well and are useless with the ball in hand which adds up to a very average side. They need to stop focusing on getting 5% better at the stuff we're already at an 8/10 level and focus on getting a lot better at the stuff we're doing at a 2/10 level. We have the worst attack of pretty much any side in the world... Argentina, Scotland, Fiji are way more threatening.

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