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Crusaders announce 2025 Super Rugby Pacific captain

David Havili of the Crusaders reacts during the round 11 Super Rugby Pacific match between the Crusaders and Queensland Reds at Apollo Projects Stadium, on May 4, 2024, in Christchurch, New Zealand. (Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)

The Crusaders have announced experienced midfielder David Havili as their 2025 Super Rugby Pacific captain this morning, taking the role after being part of the leadership group since being named vice captain in 2020.

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Havili, who has played 128 games for the Crusaders, debuted for the Christchurch-based side in 2015. 

The 30-year-old has previously held leadership roles, including being captain of the Tasman Mako during their back to back NPC titles in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

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With the first preseason game for the Crusaders being just over two weeks away, Havili will return to Crusaders camp this week to address the 2025 playing group for the first time after being announced captain.

Havili has played 30 Test matches for the All Blacks and has often led the Crusaders when previous captain Scott Barrett was unavailable for selection at any point.

Due to the enforced All Blacks rest periods, Codie Taylor may have been overlooked as he could miss some time during the regular season.

Havili won’t have a shortage of experienced leaders to call upon, with the likes of Tom Christie, Quinten Strange, Scott Barrett and Codie Taylor all part of the 2025 playing group.

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Fixture
Super Rugby Pacific
Crusaders
00:05
14 Feb 25
Hurricanes
All Stats and Data

The Crusaders will play the Blues at Kirwee Rugby Club on January 31st, their first pre-season outing for the 2025 season, before they open their official Super Rugby Pacific campaign against the Hurricanes on February 14th.


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2 Comments
G
GP 26 days ago

I am really pleased for David Havili becoming the Crusaders captain. He looks fit and I believe he will make a real challenge for AB starting position. He and Richie Mo'unga were a great combo. Great leadership group, you have Tom Christie, Codie Taylor, Scott Barrett, Mitchell Drummond , others. This team is going to prove the naysayers wrong.

S
SC 26 days ago

While I do not believe Havili is big enough or powerful enough to play in the midfield at test level, he is an outstanding Super Rugby player at 12 and 15 when healthy and obviously is very respected throughout the Crusaders and a good choice for captain.


Codie Taylor's goal is to remain a world class level hooker up to and including the RWC 2027. To accomplish this, he must be carefully managed and maybe only needs to play 9-10 of 14 regular season matches in Super Rugby (and a similar number for All Blacks) to reach the RWC. So Taylor would not be an ideal choice as captain for the Crusaders at this point in his career.

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Tom 1 hour ago
How the England firm of 'Smith & Smith' toppled France

France played badly, England were much improved. If we can back it up then I'll get excited... But as you say France "should" have won. Although England were the better side in the second half and it's been a long time since England's second half performance was better than the opposition.


There were a few performances to make me optimistic:


Tom Curry - looks back to his best, between him and Underhill we have two exceptional flankers


Ben Earl - also looks to be getting back into some form, carried well


Tom Willis - gave more balance to the back row, finally we've found a proper test level number 8


Ollie Chessum - always been a skilled backrower and great lineout option but he looked much more physical and got really stuck in


Fin Smith - first half display was a struggle due to lack of experience as Borthwick has given him no opportunities, but he was so composed in the second half and made so many good calls with a balanced range of kicking passing and taking it to the line.


Henry Slade - he's struggled in a team playing a reductive gameplan but demonstrated that he's a classy operator in a team prepared to move the ball


All in all I really hope England gain some confidence and back themselves in the next match with ball in hand. I'm so sick of seeing the sort of wasteful grubber kicks that Lawrence put in which England have used far too much and with a total combined net meterage gain in the last few years of minus 1 million meters.

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