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Confirmed: Former All Black George Bridge is heading to Europe

By Sam Smith
(Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

The Crusaders have announced that former All Blacks George Bridge has played his final game in the red and black jersey and will soon take up a contract with French club Montpellier.

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Bridge moved to Canterbury from Gisborne as a teenager and joined the Crusaders academy soon after. He was Canterbury’s Under 19 player of the year in 2014, played for the New Zealand Under 20 team in 2015, and was selected for the Canterbury Mitre 10 Cup squad in 2016 where he scored five tries in eight matches.

Bridge made his Crusaders debut in 2017 and has since racked up 67 caps for the team. Notable appearances in the jersey included a hat trick of tries at home against the Stormers in April 2017 to contribute to a 57-21 win, and then achieving the same feat a week later in Bloemfontein against the Cheetahs.

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The 27-year-old was a top try scorer in the 2018 Super Rugby season and made the starting line-up in the team’s win over the Lions in the grand final. He made his All Blacks debut later that year against Japan and scored two second-half tries – one off his first touch of the ball.

By 2019, Bridge was a regular All Blacks starter, his season including a four-try blitz against Tonga (with the All Blacks winning 92-7). He was named in the 2019 Rugby World Cup squad and played four tests in the tournament – a starter in all.

Bridge scored 10 tries across his last three seasons with the Crusaders, and continued to be a stalwart of the team and an inspiration for younger players coming through the Academy.

Scott Robertson, Crusaders Head Coach, said Bridge would be missed.

“George is a man and player who epitomises what it is to be a Crusader. He’s a hard worker, he’s tough, and he’s a winner. Bridgey is such a good honest man and we can all call him a great mate.”

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Montpellier confirmed that Bridge had signed a three-year deal with the club which will keep him in France until 2025.

“We are very proud to welcome George among us,” said club manager Philippe Saint-Andre. “His arrival will allow us to compensate for Arthur Vincent’s injury. He will put his experience to the benefit of the collective and we look forward to welcoming him among us.”

“I am delighted to sign with a club with the recent success and prestige of Montpellier,” said Bridge. “I look forward to bringing to the club the experience I was able to gain with the Crusaders and the All Blacks.”

Bridge will link up with Montpellier following the completion of Canterbury’s NPC season, with the NZ powerhouses taking on Bay of Plenty in this Saturday’s semi-final.

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Jon 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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