Crusaders 2022
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@stargazer said in Crusaders 2022:
@crazy-horse I can only think of Bryn Hall. Tom Sanders left for the Chiefs and came back, so doesn't really count.
Was Bryn Hall an AB? From memory he was a maligned Blue wasn't he? Much like Douglas and Reece, in a squad but not used a lot.
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@crazy-horse said in Crusaders 2022:
Much like Douglas and Reece, in a squad but not used a lot.
Nope
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@duluth said in Crusaders 2022:
@crazy-horse said in Crusaders 2022:
Much like Douglas and Reece, in a squad but not used a lot.
Nope
Nope what? Was I wrong? My memory is pretty shit around these things
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@crazy-horse Bryn Hall has never been capped by the ABs. He was in camp with the ABs in 2018 (in Japan), but didn't get picked. He played 32 games for the Blues (2013-2016) before moving South.
Douglas and Reece never played SR before they were signed by the Crusaders.
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@stargazer said in Crusaders 2022:
@crazy-horse Bryn Hall has never been capped by the ABs. He was in camp with the AB 2018 (in Japan), but didn't get picked. He played 32 games for the Blues (2013-2016) before moving South.
Douglas and Reece never played SR before they were signed by the Crusaders.
Cheers, for some reason I thought they may have been squadies at the Chiefs.
But that sort of shows my point. How could TTT be one of the more underwhelming signings the Crusader have made recently, when apart from the one mentioned by @Tim, there really haven't been many, if any, exciting signings for a long time. Unless you are counting re-signings.
I have been wondering about this for a while. Are players not knocking down the door to play for Robertson, or is it more a case of the Saders looking internally? I suspect it's the latter, but I do wonder when the Saders have missed out on a couple of young up and comers recently.
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@crazy-horse said in Crusaders 2022:
I have been wondering about this for a while. Are players not knocking down the door to play for Robertson, or is it more a case of the Saders looking internally? I suspect it's the latter, but I do wonder when the Saders have missed out on a couple of young up and comers recently.
Crusaders do approach players to move - Ofa, Frizell, Fakatava are recent rumoured examples
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@crazy-horse they are great at developing and encouraging their own talent unlike other franchises. But I think it is largely circumstantial with players farmed across only 2 unions. The teams with 4 unions have a far harder time, yet keep recruiting from outside in large numbers.
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So yeah, as you lot have reminded me, there have been quite of lot of rumours around the Crusaders chasing players, but bugger all of those players have signed in the end. From memory the Saders have even had losses from their own system. Darry springs to mind as a player they probably would have wanted to keep. But they are not alone in that.
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It's clear the Crusaders can't be accused of poaching . They're probably the franchise who now signs the least players who've been developed or played elsewhere.
The players who have been approached and didn't sign; I don't think that had anything to do with the coach (Robertson), the team or the environment, but more out of loyalty to the franchise they are playing for.
TTT isn't the player who can be accused of loyalty, but nobody can really blame him. He didn't get game time at the Hurricanes, or Chiefs - being stuck behind TJP and Weber. Now he probably won't get game time, because of being stuck behind Drummond and Hall.
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@mariner4life Examples of the contrary?
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@stargazer said in Crusaders 2022:
@mariner4life Examples of the contrary?
gestures broadly at all the non-Christchurch born and bred players in their squad
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@mariner4life Crusaders is the entire northern half of the South Island. And almost all the players not born or schooled there, were developed by their academy. So, the few examples of players not developed by the Crusaders academy are ..?
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@stargazer said in Crusaders 2022:
@mariner4life Crusaders is the entire northern half of the South Island. And almost all the players not born or schooled there, were developed by their academy. So, the few examples of players not developed by the Crusaders academy are ..?
look, you can narrow your definition so you can white knight your little wankbank franchise all you want, but poaching schoolboys is still poaching.
and quite frankly good on them, that's how you build a fucking great team. their talent identification is excellent. Their development programs are excellent. The results speak for themselves. Well done the Crusaders, others should be taking fucking notes, but for some reason don't seem able to
but lets not be silly about trying to paint them as some lily white province of purity. They are professional, not pure.
The elite level players of NZ very rarely move anywhere. Who has? Barrett, Nonu, Dagg...
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@mariner4life Ah okay, then the Blues is full of poached players by default, as they have all their rich schools poaching players from the provinces for them, not to mention the Islands. More than anyone else! And then the Chiefs too, because Hamilton Boys' is full of them, too. They've even poached the entire province of Taranaki from the Canes. Oh, and the Canes with the likes of Scots College. Won't even talk about the Landers, who have them ready made for them.
