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Blues lock Scott Scrafton the latest to depart for another Super Rugby franchise

Scott Scrafton sails high for the Blues. (Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung / Getty Images)

The Hurricanes have strengthened the depth of their forward pack after signing imposing lock Scott Scrafton on a two-year deal from 2020.

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The 26-year-old will join the Hurricanes from the Blues until at least the end of the 2021 Investec Super Rugby season.

A former New Zealand Schools and Under-20 representative, Scrafton made his provincial debut for Auckland in 2014 before being named in the Blues for the 2016 season when he made his debut against the Waratahs.

The 2 metre second rower impressed with his development over the next two seasons and looked on track to become a regular fixture in 2018 before a serious knee injury left him sidelined for close to 12 months.

He returned to the starting line-up in May for the Blues and impressed with his performances.

Hurricanes head coach John Plumtree was looking forward to welcoming Scrafton to Wellington later this year.

“He is the sort of player who we think can quickly establish himself in our squad and become someone who fits in to the way we really want to play,” he said.

“Scott has shown he has got a really strong work ethic, he’s a big man with a real presence on the field and he’s obviously a really good lineout option.”

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Hurricanes general manager of rugby Ben Castle was also delighted Scrafton had chosen to head south for the next stage of his career.

“Scott has really impressed us with his professionalism and desire to succeed which are two critical assets for us and I’m really confident he will be a valuable addition to the Hurricanes club.”

Scrafton is the second experienced forward that the Hurricanes have signed in recent weeks, with Highlanders prop Tyrel Lomax also relocating to the capital from 2020.

– Hurricanes Rugby

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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.


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