All Black wing George Bridge on his 'forced' decision to leave New Zealand

All Blacks wing George Bridge has opened up his call to finish his New Zealand rugby career ahead of Canterbury’s NPC final against Wellington in Christchurch.

Bridge hopes to help Canterbury to another provincial title to finish off a 10-year stint in Christchurch ahead of his move to France with Top 14 heavyweights Montpellier.

He has signed a three-year deal with the French club and will join for the 2022-23 season which has already commenced.

The 27-year-old said the decision to leave was made for him after missing out on both Crusaders and All Blacks selection this year after a rocky end to the 2021 season.

Young Tasman teammate Leicester Fainga’anuku surpassed Bridge at the Crusaders for the left wing starting role, while Fainga’anuku and Blues wing Caleb Clarke were the two selections by the All Blacks.

“I knew the position I was in,” Bridge told the media at Canterbury training.

“You can’t really dwell on not making teams, the only thing you can do is concentrate on what’s next.”

The Crusaders fourth all-time try scorer had sights on making a second Rugby World Cup with the All Blacks after breaking into the side on the eve of the 2019 World Cup in Japan.

After a shock 47-26 loss to the Wallabies in Perth during the 2019 Rugby Championship, incumbent wingers Rieko Ioane and Ben Smith paid the price by losing their starting roles to Crusaders pair Bridge and Sevu Reece.

Bridge played one Bledisloe test before starting on the left wing for the All Blacks in their big World Cup clashes, the pool stage win over the Springboks, the quarter-final win over Ireland and the semi-final defeat to England.

“To be honest, the goal was to be going to the World Cup next year,” he said.

“Obviously, things didn’t pan out that way, but that’s just the nature of professional sport.”

Bridge played just one test in 2020 against the Wallabies in Wellington before succumbing to a season-ending injury in the reduced Covid year.

Returning in 2021, Bridge featured in eight tests but indifferent form saw him fall down the pecking order in 2022, missing Ian Foster’s July squad to play Ireland.

The 19-test All Black made the ‘really tough’ decision to take up an offer now before the market is potentially flooded with the end of the World Cup cycle and post-World Cup departures.

“The decision to go overseas was really tough, because of that goal that I wanted to get to, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to make the best of what you can,” Bridge said.

“It was a decision sort of made for me, rather than sticking around and potentially putting myself in a worse position next year.”