Departing All Black leaves NZ playing 'best rugby of his career'
It won’t necessarily happen overnight, but Brett Cameron’s move to Japan will surely eventually be acknowledged for the loss that it is.
The one-test All Black signed a one-year deal with Kamaishi Seawaves earlier this year after he couldn’t lock in a Super Rugby gig with any of the NZ franchises.
Cameron was a surprise call-up for the 2018 end-of-year tour and notched up a handful of minutes against Japan after replacing Richie Mo’unga. Since then, Cameron has struggled to earn game time with the Crusaders and even found himself slipping down the pecking order with Canterbury.
As such, the 25-year-old moved back to his home province of Manawatu for this year’s NPC campaign and with regular opportunities in the No 10 jersey, Cameron’s play flourished. With Cameron at the helm, Manawatu progressed to the knockout stages of the Championship division but the playmaker was ruled out on the day of the semi-final, and the Turbos fell to Otago.
While Cameron’s rich form piqued the interests of a number of Super Rugby sides, Cameron had already committed to Kamaishi and will spend the formative stages of 2022 in the northeast of Japan.
Speaking on the latest episode of the Aotearoa Rugby Pod, panellist Bryn Hall, a former teammate of Cameron’s at the Crusaders, has lamented the playmaker’s shift and named the former All Black as his top player of the NPC season.
“I thought Brett Cameron was outstanding for Manawatu, even though he couldn’t play in the finals, which I think was probably a little bit of the difference in that Championship [semi],” Hall said.
“He was down in Canterbury with the Crusaders and things didn’t go his way with [him] not being able to play as much as he would’ve wanted. But look, I think his performances, more so in his running game, his ability to be able to game-manage and taking his learnings from the Crusaders and his one test with the All Blacks, I thought he was definitely the stand-out player for me.
“It’s a touch unfortunate that he’s had to go to Japan because I think he was playing the best rugby of his career and it’s unfortunate to see him go.”
Hall also travelled to Japan as a squad member on the 2018 end-of-year tour but didn’t get to take the field for the All Blacks.
Brett Cameron is in career-best form for Manawatu and while the one-test All Black will head to Japan following the provincial season, he's not yet calling time on his dreams of once again representing NZ. #AllBlacks @ManawatuRugby
?? @TomVinicombehttps://t.co/ASbg7e9JzB
— The XV Rugby (@TheXV) October 20, 2021
James Parsons, himself a former All Black, also anointed a Championship playmaker as his MVP of the season.
“I ended up going with Stevie Perofeta from Taranaki. He was just sensational from game one, all the way through to the final,” Parsons said. “His ability off the tee but also his ability to inject himself from the back was exceptional and really put Taranaki on a 10 and 0 run with a Championship to boot, so I think he was the best performing player in the NPC.”
Perofeta has found a permanent home for himself at fullback this year after flitting between the No 15 and No 10 jerseys over the past few seasons, and the 24-year-old has gone from strength to strength over the course of the season. While he lost hist starting position at the Blues to youngster Zarn Sullivan during Super Rugby Trans-Tasman, Perofeta could enter 2022 in pole position to wrestle the role back, with Sullivan spending the bulk of the NPC sidelined due to Auckland’s Covid-enforced absence from the competition.
Comments on RugbyPass
We’re building a bridge but can't agree where the river is.
2 Go to commentsfirst no arms shoulder or helmet tackle into his rib cage is going to be so very painful even to watch. go back to RU mate.
1 Go to commentsBulls by 5. Plus another 50.
3 Go to commentsJohan Goosen avatar. Cute. Surely someone at RP knows how to do a google image search?
3 Go to commentsCan’t these games play a little earlier? Asking for a friend.
3 Go to commentsIt’s impressive that we can see huge stadiums with attendance in the 40 000 to 50 000 region. It shows how popular this competition is becoming. What is even more impressive is the massive growth in broadcast viewership. The URC is one of the two best leagues in the World, the other being the Top14.
7 Go to commentsChristie is not Sottish, like the majority of the Scotland team.
2 Go to commentsHold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
45 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
2 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
7 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
45 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
45 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to comments