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Coach says there’s ‘a clear candidate' to replace Scott Barrett as captain

Scott Barrett holds the Super Rugby Pacific trophy as the Crusaders celebrate after winning the Super Rugby Pacific Final match between Chiefs and Crusaders at FMG Stadium Waikato, on June 24, 2023, in Hamilton, New Zealand. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

The Crusaders will have a new captain in 2025, with assistant coach Matt Todd revealing on Wednesday that there’s “a clear candidate” to step into the role. It was announced this week that Scott Barrett will no longer hold that position at the Super Rugby Pacific club.

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“History would say it’s going to be too challenging,” coach Rob Penney explained on Tuesday after the Crusaders unveiled their squad for the 2025 season. Barrett is also the current All Blacks captain which is “a big ask” in itself.

Barrett was appointed as the national team’s skipper in June before a two-match series against England in New Zealand, and the lock has continued to serve in that role since. The 30-year-old recently led the All Blacks to a memorable 23-13 win over Ireland at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium.

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But, on top of all the on-field leadership responsibilities as the captain of a rugby team, Barrett has also had to juggle other commitments and pressures. That’s the same at Super Rugby Pacific level, and the Crusaders are wary of managing the second rower’s workload.

While the Crusaders have revealed that veteran players including Joe Moddy, Ryan Crotty and Brodie McAlister have all departed the club, no word on the captaincy has been made as of yet. But the coaching staff seem to have a player in mind to take up that duty next season.

“I wouldn’t say it’s set in stone but there’s probably a clear candidate,” Todd said on SENZ’s Scotty & Izzy.

“In terms of Scoot, when you’re All Black captain, (there’s) obviously a lot of pressure, a lot of mental fatigue as much as physical around the extra workload that you have.

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“It’ll be good for him just to focus on playing when he’s at the Crusaders and the captaincy will go to someone else.

“It’s not set in stone but we’ve certainly got a candidate we’re probably leaning towards.”

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With a new captain leading the charge, the Crusaders will look to bounce back after an uncharacteristically poor campaign in 2024. They only managed to win four matches across the 14-game round-robin, which saw them finish just outside of a playoff spot in ninth.

The Crusaders’ campaign started with a tense 33-29 loss to eventual runners-up the Chiefs in Hamilton, before the Waratahs, Fijian Drua, Hurricanes and Blues piled on more pain. Their first win came against the Chiefs in March, but it wasn’t exactly the start of a winning run.

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While they were able to beat the Rebels 39-nil, the Crusaders only managed that one win through a six-game stretch. They got the better of the Blues 29-27 and Maona Pasifika 43-10 in their final two games of the season, but it still wasn’t enough to see them qualify for the finals.

“Obviously it wasn’t a great year for us last year but it just shows the challenges of Super Rugby, it’s a tough competition,” Todd explained.

“You learn a lot. You learn the importance of the whole management group being on the same page working together, some good lessons from that.

“Just being clear on how we want to play from the get-go and making sure that we put the time in at training so we’ve set the squad up to perform, and pushed them hard enough so that they’ve gone through enough adversity at training that sets them up well for game day.

“There were some good lessons learned from the coaching group and we’re excited about the opportunity that gives us this year to be better. It starts in a couple of weeks when pre-season starts.

“We’ve just got to be clear on how we want to play, be clear on what’s going to be important for us within that and set the team up well.

“Then, I think a big one is when those All Black boys come back, just making sure we get their connection part… really nail those few weeks from when they come into when the season starts because it’s not long once ABs’ boys come back until we’re into it.”

Louis Rees-Zammit joins Jim Hamilton for the latest episode of Walk the Talk to discuss his move to the NFL. Watch now on RugbyPass TV

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2 Comments
S
SadersMan 6 days ago

Codie Taylor c David Havili vc Quentin Strange vc.


Leon McDonald to replace Penney ASAP.

R
Rooksie 5 days ago

Totally agree on Leon replacing Penney bro ..

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JW 2 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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