Crusaders 2026
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@MN5 said in Crusaders 2026:
@Bones said in Crusaders 2026:
@Chris said in Crusaders 2026:
released by the Crusaders at his own request to be near his family
Hopefully home cooked food will get him to eat more.
His mobility will be off the charts at that weight
113 kg, at 1.73 metres, isn't exactly svelte.
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A bit of an odd choice in my opinion. He’s seen McCalister leave for game time and reap the rewards with and All Black call up. Unless Taylor is taking a sabbatical or cutting his minutes right back it doesn’t feel like this was the best move for Bell moving forward. He should be wanting to start every week and compete for the Black jersey. The best way to develop is by playing… That’s just my opinion.
Do I recall someone saying Letiu is signed? Leads you to believe Eli Oudenryn will be the hooker on the outside looking in. Player of the tournament in the u20 comp, he will attract a lot of interest from all franchises I am sure.
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@Landers92 said in Crusaders 2026:
A bit of an odd choice in my opinion. He’s seen McCalister leave for game time and reap the rewards with and All Black call up. Unless Taylor is taking a sabbatical or cutting his minutes right back it doesn’t feel like this was the best move for Bell moving forward. He should be wanting to start every week and compete for the Black jersey. The best way to develop is by playing… That’s just my opinion.
Do I recall someone saying Letiu is signed? Leads you to believe Eli Oudenryn will be the hooker on the outside looking in. Player of the tournament in the u20 comp, he will attract a lot of interest from all franchises I am sure.
Probably no difference than McAlister sharing time with Tuakeiaho.
Bell will come of the bench and get starts to manage Taylor’s minutes he will be involved in the 23 every week. -
@Chris said in Crusaders 2026:
@Landers92 said in Crusaders 2026:
A bit of an odd choice in my opinion. He’s seen McCalister leave for game time and reap the rewards with and All Black call up. Unless Taylor is taking a sabbatical or cutting his minutes right back it doesn’t feel like this was the best move for Bell moving forward. He should be wanting to start every week and compete for the Black jersey. The best way to develop is by playing… That’s just my opinion.
Do I recall someone saying Letiu is signed? Leads you to believe Eli Oudenryn will be the hooker on the outside looking in. Player of the tournament in the u20 comp, he will attract a lot of interest from all franchises I am sure.
Probably no difference than McAlister sharing time with Tuakeiaho.
Bell will come of the bench and get starts to manage Taylor’s minutes he will be involved in the 23 every week.Definitely good enough to start for a couple other franchises and get more regular minutes is what I’m getting at, would increase his AB chances in the process.
Nevertheless it’s a huge win for the Crusaders.
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@Landers92 said in Crusaders 2026:
@Chris said in Crusaders 2026:
@Landers92 said in Crusaders 2026:
A bit of an odd choice in my opinion. He’s seen McCalister leave for game time and reap the rewards with and All Black call up. Unless Taylor is taking a sabbatical or cutting his minutes right back it doesn’t feel like this was the best move for Bell moving forward. He should be wanting to start every week and compete for the Black jersey. The best way to develop is by playing… That’s just my opinion.
Do I recall someone saying Letiu is signed? Leads you to believe Eli Oudenryn will be the hooker on the outside looking in. Player of the tournament in the u20 comp, he will attract a lot of interest from all franchises I am sure.
Probably no difference than McAlister sharing time with Tuakeiaho.
Bell will come of the bench and get starts to manage Taylor’s minutes he will be involved in the 23 every week.Definitely good enough to start for a couple other franchises and get more regular minutes is what I’m getting at, would increase his AB chances in the process.
Nevertheless it’s a huge win for the Crusaders.
After looking back at the 2025 SR season out of 17 games including finals McAlister started 6 games was on the bench for 6 and didn’t feature 5 times.
Probably similar to what time Bell will get in 2026 or Bell will get more as he should be in the 23 for more games. -
@Chris said in Crusaders 2026:
@Landers92 said in Crusaders 2026:
@Chris said in Crusaders 2026:
@Landers92 said in Crusaders 2026:
A bit of an odd choice in my opinion. He’s seen McCalister leave for game time and reap the rewards with and All Black call up. Unless Taylor is taking a sabbatical or cutting his minutes right back it doesn’t feel like this was the best move for Bell moving forward. He should be wanting to start every week and compete for the Black jersey. The best way to develop is by playing… That’s just my opinion.
Do I recall someone saying Letiu is signed? Leads you to believe Eli Oudenryn will be the hooker on the outside looking in. Player of the tournament in the u20 comp, he will attract a lot of interest from all franchises I am sure.
Probably no difference than McAlister sharing time with Tuakeiaho.
Bell will come of the bench and get starts to manage Taylor’s minutes he will be involved in the 23 every week.Definitely good enough to start for a couple other franchises and get more regular minutes is what I’m getting at, would increase his AB chances in the process.
Nevertheless it’s a huge win for the Crusaders.
After looking back at the 2025 SR season out of 17 games including finals McAlister started 6 games was on the bench for 6 and didn’t feature 5 times.
Probably similar to what time Bell will get in 2026 or Bell will get more as he should be in the 23 for more games.Again, and as I stated above, He could start elsewhere and get more regular minutes to push his case and continue to develop… limiting yourself a bit if you’re coming off the bench more often than not.
It’s nothing against the Crusaders at all, just my opinion on it. As an AB fan, I want all these guys with potential like Bell to be starting/getting more regular game time. Staying somewhere where the out and out All Black starter is ahead of you isn’t exactly going to help that.
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@Landers92 said in Crusaders 2026:
@Chris said in Crusaders 2026:
@Landers92 said in Crusaders 2026:
@Chris said in Crusaders 2026:
@Landers92 said in Crusaders 2026:
A bit of an odd choice in my opinion. He’s seen McCalister leave for game time and reap the rewards with and All Black call up. Unless Taylor is taking a sabbatical or cutting his minutes right back it doesn’t feel like this was the best move for Bell moving forward. He should be wanting to start every week and compete for the Black jersey. The best way to develop is by playing… That’s just my opinion.
Do I recall someone saying Letiu is signed? Leads you to believe Eli Oudenryn will be the hooker on the outside looking in. Player of the tournament in the u20 comp, he will attract a lot of interest from all franchises I am sure.
Probably no difference than McAlister sharing time with Tuakeiaho.
Bell will come of the bench and get starts to manage Taylor’s minutes he will be involved in the 23 every week.Definitely good enough to start for a couple other franchises and get more regular minutes is what I’m getting at, would increase his AB chances in the process.
Nevertheless it’s a huge win for the Crusaders.
After looking back at the 2025 SR season out of 17 games including finals McAlister started 6 games was on the bench for 6 and didn’t feature 5 times.
Probably similar to what time Bell will get in 2026 or Bell will get more as he should be in the 23 for more games.Again, and as I stated above, He could start elsewhere and get more regular minutes to push his case and continue to develop… limiting yourself a bit if you’re coming off the bench more often than not.
It’s nothing against the Crusaders at all, just my opinion on it. As an AB fan, I want all these guys with potential like Bell to be starting/getting more regular game time. Staying somewhere where the out and out All Black starter is ahead of you isn’t exactly going to help that.
Sure I understand that but I am talking about your point of McAlister moving to become an AllBlack, which he did playing maybe less than Bell will staying at the Crusaders, it’s not a blight on your post more a discussion on there is not much difference in the two scenarios.
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Moananu to the …Waratahs.
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@zedsdeadbaby He was a leading hooker and could well have made the All Blacks further down the line, why would he go to the Tahs?
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I wonder if he has Australian heritage somewhere? You’d think there’d be several franchises after him in NZ.
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@frugby said in Crusaders 2026:
All the NZ sides had their hookers locked in… case of following the opportunities.
Who have MP signed? Both Sama Malolo and Tomasi Maka were listed amongst the 15 players leaving. That only leaves Mills Sanerivi and Sam Moli.
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@zedsdeadbaby said in Crusaders 2026:
Moananu to the …Waratahs.
Wow. How can our SR franchises be this stupid. Would walk into the Blues starting lineup.
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@frugby said in Crusaders 2026:
All the NZ sides had their hookers locked in… case of following the opportunities.
Seems insane nobody could find room for him though.
Franchises have gotten rid of several players under contract recently. Moananu was in the top half a dozen hookers in NZ. If he wanted to have stayed someone could have got paid out to make room for him.
It reads like he decided Sydney was better than NZ, and good on him.
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From a Blues perspective, sadly it looks like we jumped the gun and signed Bradley Slater when we could have fit him in.
How long is he at the Tahs for?
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@African-Monkey giving a multi year contract to an unproven guy like Mullan was the bigger error. He better improve fast
