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'I lost nine kgs': All Blacks star opens up about health scare

(Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

Timing is everything in rugby and at the start of this year’s Super Rugby season, Crusaders fullback David Havili seemed to have it nailed.

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The three test All Black was arguably the form player of the competition and as with last year, was again logging big minutes for the defending champions. But off-field timing, or more significantly, off-field health suddenly deserted the 25-year-old Tasman skipper.

An infection saw Havili hospitalised with surgery to remove 20 centimetres from his bowel.

Fast forward two months and the versatile back says he is slowly building his training load, and rebuilding his body.

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“I lost about nine kgs and went down to 86, but I’ve been able to put about five back on,” he said. “It’s been seven weeks since post-surgery and I’ve just been able to start lifting weights again in the last two weeks.”

The timing of the lockdown means the Nelson College old boy has missed minimal rugby, but he says if the game was miraculously given the green light to return tomorrow, he wouldn’t be ready to play.

“It depends on how the body reacts to putting the condition back on and I don’t want to risk injury by coming back too soon.”

Lockdown life has seen Havili in a bubble with his girlfriend, as well as All Blacks wing George Bridge and his partner, along with Crusaders lock Quinten Strange.

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Job losses amongst the Crusaders backroom staff has given him cause to think about life outside of rugby.

“I was 18 months into a building apprenticeship before rugby took off and I’d definitely like to pick up the tools at some stage, but hopefully rugby can get back on schedule soon.

“Everyone is definitely hurting from the restructure at the Crusaders, and the players are no different.”

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Flankly 2 hours 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?

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