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Three Crusaders stars have played their final match for the Super Rugby Aotearoa champions

(Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)

The Crusaders will need to do some further recruitment ahead of next season with three of their players set to depart the franchise.

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Loose forwards Whetukamokamo Douglas, Tom Sanders and wing Manasa Mataele have all played their final games for the team, with the trio heading offshore for 2022.

Mataele – who earlier this week was named in the Fiji squad for their upcoming two-match series with the All Blacks – is rumoured to be heading to the Western Force in Australia.

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This week’s panel of Ross Karl, James Parsons and Joey Wheeler talk about all the action and news from the week of rugby in New Zealand and across the world.

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This week’s panel of Ross Karl, James Parsons and Joey Wheeler talk about all the action and news from the week of rugby in New Zealand and across the world.

The Force have already announced that four up-and-coming Brumbies players will head west for next season with Reesjan Pasitoa, Bayley Kuenzle, Reece Tapine and Issak Fines-Leleiwasa all committing to the Australian team on two-year deals. They are, however, losing three Argentinian stars with Tomas Lezana, Tomas Cubelli and Domingo Miotti all heading to Europe.

Mataele burst onto the scene for the Crusaders in 2017 and was in the process of establishing himself as a starter for the team in 2019 when a ruptured ACL opened the door for Sevu Reece. Mataele has struggled for minutes since, mainly having to accept smaller roles off the bench.

27-year-old Sanders, meanwhile, is heading to Japan where he will become the latest New Zealand loose forward to feature in the Top League.

Sanders started his Super Rugby career with the Chiefs back in 2016 before shifting south to the Crusaders two years later. A barnstorming performance for the South Island in last year’s North v South exhibition match had some speculating that the Cantabrian could be due for an All Blacks call-up but nothing eventuated last year.

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With the likes of Cullen Grace and Ethan Blackadder typically being preferred to him at the Crusaders throughout 2021, now is a sensible time for Sanders to head offshore.

Maori All Blacks No 8 Whetukamokamo Douglas is the longest-serving of the trio, having first linked up with the Crusaders in 2017. Douglas’ destination is yet to be confirmed but the powerful loose forward spent a season with Rainbow Cup finalists Benetton in recent years and could be looking to make a return to Europe.

The Crusaders have already announced one big-name signing for 2021, bringing Argentina captain Pablo Matera into the mix.

Scott Robertson and his fellow coaches brought just four new players into the squad at the start of the season but already it looks like recruitment will need to be upped for the campaign ahead.

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Crusaders Under 20s loose forward and captain Anton Segner will be odds-on to make his Super Rugby debut next year while there are always plenty of talented outside backs floating around the country.

The Crusaders finished third in this year’s Super Rugby Trans-Tasman competition due to their inferior points differential relative to the Blues and Highlanders but were crowned Aotearoa champions for the second year running.

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J
JW 34 minutes ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

This piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.


I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.


Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.


The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.

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