Crusaders 2026
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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
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Waratahs social post suggests only for 2026. You’d hope some Kiwi teams manage to offload some talent and get him back to NZ for 2027.
Canes seem like an obvious one.
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@African-Monkey said in Crusaders 2026:
From a Blues perspective, sadly it looks like we jumped the gun and signed Bradley Slater when we could have fit him in.
I truly don't understand how these contract situations work
How could you sign Slater without fully exploring the Moananu situation
It makes no sense.
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@SouthernMann said in Crusaders 2026:
@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.
It might read like that, but I’m telling you that isn’t the case. The fact he has only signed for 2026, is notable in that regard.
I also think he probably isn’t rated as highly internally as he is on here.
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@Bovidae said in Crusaders 2026:
@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.
Not sure… I had heard that NZ sides so not sure whether that included MP.
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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.
Wow, I didn’t expect him to go to Australia. That Slater signing threw an even bigger spanner than first thought. I’ll wear that one. A shame he’s leaving New Zealand
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@frugby said in Crusaders 2026:
@SouthernMann said in Crusaders 2026:
@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.
It might read like that, but I’m telling you that isn’t the case. The fact he has only signed for 2026, is notable in that regard.
I also think he probably isn’t rated as highly internally as he is on here.
He may not be rated as highly as members of an anonymous internet forum think... but
He should be rated higher than
H Bell, Vikena, Devery, Tuputupu, Slater, Eklund and Mullan.
That is more than 50% of the contractd hookers.
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Codie Taylor, George Bell, Manumaua Letiu(NZ 20’s and already had a Crusaders debut) and Eli Oudenryn(NZ 20’s and u20 super rugby player of the tournament). Crusaders are in ag good place at hooker even with Moananu leaving.
I wonder if they can keep both youngsters and have 1 in the wider training group. Eli will have plenty of franchises attention now.
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@Duluth said in Crusaders 2026:
@African-Monkey giving a multi year contract to an unproven guy like Mullan was the bigger error. He better improve fast
It's looking that way currently, as he barely played last season, and he looks like he'll be nothing more than a bit part player next season too.
Sorry, don't mean to derail the Crusaders thread like this, but crazy that no NZ side could find Moananu a spot on their rosters.
