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Former Chiefs wing Bryce Heem joins Super Rugby rivals for 2021 season

(Photo by Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

Former Chiefs wing Bryce Heem has joined the Blues for the 2021 Super Rugby Aotearoa season, taking the final spot on the Auckland franchise’s roster.

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It comes after the 32-year-old returned to New Zealand from France, where he had been playing for Toulon since 2019, due to family reasons last month.

Heem takes the place of Argentine midfielder Santiago Chocobares, who was due to join the Blues this year, but he and the club weren’t able to finalise a deal in time for the start of the season.

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“We were looking forward to Santiago joining us but it proved too difficult to get him here,” Blues head coach Leon MacDonald said.

“Bryce is a quality player and a quality bloke who has been an excellent overseas professional in Europe. He will be invaluable asset for us this season.

“He played centre and wing for us at Tasman and was superb both on and off the field. His sevens background means his work rate is excellent and he’s very quick and a big body. His recent form in France was impressive.”

Having started out his professional career with Auckland, Heem also played for Northland and Tasman in the Mitre 10 Cup over six seasons, and won a Super Rugby contract with the Chiefs in his final year in New Zealand in 2015.

During that same time, he featured regularly for the All Blacks Sevens between 2011 and 2014, claiming three World Sevens Series titles and a 2014 Commonwealth Games silver medal.

Heem moved to England at the end of 2015 to join Premiership club Worcester Warriors, where he scored 32 tries in 70 matches, before joining Toulon two years ago.

It was in the south of France where he scored six tries in 25 outings.

Heem’s arrival at the Blues provides the side with depth and experience, especially with fellow wing Jone Macilai-Tori out for the season after he fractured his radius while playing against the Hurricanes in last weekend’s game-of-three-halves in Upper Hutt.

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AM 41 minutes ago
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That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

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