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All Blacks star Caleb Clarke confirms playing future amid speculation of NRL switch
All Blacks star Caleb Clarke has confirmed he will remain in rugby union despite being the subject of a cross-code rumours earlier this year.
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It was announced on Monday that Clarke has signed a two-year contract extension with New Zealand Rugby [NZR] and the Blues in a deal that will keep him at both organisations until 2024.
Confirmation of Clarke’s playing future comes two months after he signalled a desire to play rugby league following next year’s World Cup in France.
“That’s definitely one thing that I’d love to do,” the barnstorming 23-year-old wing told AAP in April about the prospect of playing in the NRL.
“I’m a big Rabbitohs supporter and I talk to the Rabbitohs boys every now and then.
“So yeah, I’d love to and I don’t know when but it’ll definitely be something that I want to tick off as a life goal.”
Those aspirations have been put on hold for the time being, though, as Clarke will remain a rugby union player for at least the next two years.
A five-test international who took the world by storm when he starred in his maiden All Blacks campaign two years ago, Clarke has established himself as a key figure in the New Zealand rugby landscape.
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Formerly a New Zealand Schools representative and 2016 national schoolboy champion with Mount Albert Grammar School, Clarke was an NPC title-winner with Auckland in 2018, the same year in which he made his debut for the Blues.
He was also part of the New Zealand U20 side that claimed the World Rugby U20 Championship the year beforehand, and helped the All Blacks Sevens claim the truncated World Sevens Series title for the 2019-20 season.
While he didn’t feature for the Blues in last year’s Super Rugby Trans-Tasman success as he unsuccessfully attempted to play for the All Blacks Sevens at the Tokyo Olympics, Clarke has made a strong impression with the Auckland-based franchise.
After initially breaking onto the scene with a standout showing at the 2018 Brisbane Tens, which the Blues won, Clarke has gone on to amass 32 caps in his five season with the Super Rugby Pacific side, scoring 12 tries in the process.
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His performances for the club earned him a test debut in 2020, and Blues head coach Leon MacDonald hopes to see more of the same from Clarke over the next two years.
“Caleb possess qualities that are so exciting in the modern young player,” MacDonald said in a statement released on Monday.
“He is a superb athlete, a trained sprinter who possesses speed and power and outstanding ball-skills. Best of all, he is an outstanding young man, dedicated athlete and good person.”
Clarke, who is currently part of the All Blacks squad preparing to face Ireland at Eden Park on Saturday, added that it was an easy decision to re-sign with the Blues in a deal that sees him re-commit to Auckland at provincial level as well.
“I would not want to be anywhere else than to be at the Blues. We have a fantastic environment and the boys work so hard together and have a lot of fun at the same time,” he said.
Comments on RugbyPass
Those are pretty good draws for the two top Aussie teams. I certainly wouldn't want my Chiefs to have a quarter final in Brisbane. None of the top teams will want the Crusaders.
1 Go to commentsHonestly, I am a bit lost here …. Ireland - RSA was (at least in my opinion) perhaps (from a purely technical / rugby-skills-show point of view) the pinnacle of the RWC2023 - almost flawless playing (putting aside the kicking of RSA which was the difference between the two teams), rugby at it’s very best …. if I were a Bok and after the game some Irish lads came around saying “see you in 5 weeks same place”, I definitely wouldn’t have thought of it as being in any way “arrogant”, rather a sort of jolly “if we both continue to play like this, no one could stop us” - besides, few of us fans would have, at that time, been surprised to see the same teams playing on 23 september and 28 october 2023 ….. well, we all know Ireland chose to hit a slump to keep the QF curse alive …..
133 Go to commentsThere’s value gleaned from having an All Black star running and training with your team. How many games he starts (or even where he plays in the backline) will be decided on a week by week basis based on the needs for that week. But the overall learning and growth for all concerned, I’d think, is massively beneficial. Especially for Irish players.
8 Go to commentsSon, whith just " raw athlete “ , you are able to beat “ better rugby players “ by 74 points…. May be England should recruit in athletics….
1 Go to commentsPffft. It’s not a one-way street bud and Irish teams don’t seem to have had an issue taking kiwi players previously.
8 Go to commentsParticularly great to have captain Scott Barrett back after going off last week for the Crusaders. Codie Taylor a real leader and mighty Tamaiti Williams join Fletcher Newell in the front row. Those 2 will make a big difference. Great bench with the likes of Tom Christie, Jamie Hannah etc who are playing well. Should be a great derby.
1 Go to commentsDoes a blitz defence not have a weekness against a well-placed grubber kick, perhaps angled cleverly. All the defence is up and the full-back can only cover so much ground. Thoughts?
28 Go to commentsWhile Iose is destructive in the Canes set-up, he is not big for an international 8 and could struggle against the top teams. With his speed, he could be developed into a seven but, as Ben points out, he doesn’t show a scavenging game with the Canes or make dominating tackles. Sotutu has shown a step up this year and attitude plus motivation seems to be the big areas of growth. Deserves another AB shot imo.
3 Go to commentsNaholo is my only question mark for this side. He wasn’t the only one who had a forgettable game against the Brumbies but he was passive, defensively poor and generally lacked energy. Needs to get a whole lot busier for me. I would have liked to see Sullivan on that wing with Higgins on the bench (if staying with a 6-2 as BeegMike points out on here!)
3 Go to commentsWell, I am sure that Eben said exactly what he meant to say, exactly how he meant to say it. Does he strike you as a man that doesn't know arrogance when he sees it. He should know it because he has shaken the arrogance out of many foes before.
133 Go to commentsPls get it into your thick arrogant heads that the final was played by two Southern Hemisphere teams. The best against the best and that Argentina was just unlucky otherwise non of the Northetn Hemisphere teams would have seen the light of day.
133 Go to commentsAs long as New Zealand youth are involved in sport they are passionate for, and are well supported, it’s all good. I love league as well as rugby. NRL clubs have long since scouted the First 15 competitions, the NH and Japan scout super rugby and NPC. It’s a miracle there’s any players left for the all blacks to pick from.
4 Go to commentsI'm a Bok fan, so I don't say this lightly, but he is one of my all time favourite players. I am really going to miss watching him play. Thanks for many great memories. You are a true legend of the game.
3 Go to commentsBest way to deal with all of this is to play another game.
133 Go to commentsIt’s 12-15 games Luke. Ringrose has barely played in 2024 and Henshaw and Keenan have also been out for spells in the same time period. There are always injuries and for younger players to play with the likes of Barrett will be great for them. It’s just looking for negatives where there are none.
8 Go to commentsAndy Goode pushing his own agenda with very dubious considerations on refereeing performances. Luke Pearce speaking a bit of French doesn’t make him a good and adequate referee for the Champions Cup final; his latest refereeing performance in particular was not so great.
4 Go to commentsJordie knows that he has to earn the right to put on the jersey, whatever that jersey might be.
8 Go to commentsThe best outside centre in the world at one point. He will be greatly missed.
3 Go to commentsYip his great for the big moments when needed as a safa really enjoy watching him
4 Go to commentsOne that will start to come up from now on is penalties for back pushes during kick chase scrambles. Very difficult to detect. In Croke Park if you replay the Hendy NH try, you will see Furbank push Porter in the back, who collides with Larmour knocking the ball across into Hendy’s path to dot down. A more significant example was in the RWC QTR final where Arendse pushes Fickou into two other French players for the ball to spill into Arendse’s path for him to gather and run in to score SAs first try. Not cheating if you are not caught and very difficult to spot but with kicking becoming so critical I feel its an area that will referreeed/TMO-ed more.
4 Go to comments