Scott Hansen addresses 'massive opportunity' amid Crusaders' midfield exodus

New Crusaders head coach Scott Hansen believes that a young crop of midfielders need to step up after the franchise lost several experienced midfielders ahead of the 2027 Super Rugby Pacific season.

The Christchurch-based franchise will be without David Havili, Dallas McLeod, and Braydon Ennor as Hansen is forced to look to the future in his midfield selections.

Hansen and the Crusaders signed Blues and Northland midfielder Corey Evans ahead of the 2027 season, before he produced a superb season for the Taniwha in the recent Hilux NPC competition.

Evans will be joined by former Highlanders midfielder Jake Te Hiwi as the club’s more experienced midfielders for the new season, while Tasman’s Cooper Roberts and Canterbury’s Toby Bell will add important depth.

Leicester Fainga’anuku is named as a midfielder, but will likely float between several positions as a “hybrid player”, across the midfield, outside backs, and openside flanker positions.

That leaves the 14-time Super Rugby champions with four specialist midfielders in their 39 man squad named late last week.

For Hansen, who spoke to Millsy & Guy on Sport Nation on Friday, he sees the departures of three experienced midfielders an excellent opportunity for a young player to take their chance.

“Yeah, we’ve got some outstanding talent coming through in the Toby Bell’s. It’s great for us to get Jake Te Hiwi from Otago come in, Corey Evans, we feel has been outstanding for Northland over the last last while, really for a number of years there, and he’s come back from his injury,” Hansen said on Sport Nation.

“Cooper Roberts we feel is a going to be an outstanding player in time. If you look at those young ones, they’ve all come through the New Zealand system. They’re all New Zealand 20s boys, so now’s their time to grab their opportunity.

“We’ve got Leicester there also, who we know, that beautiful word being used at the moment around hybrids. So there’s some some good young ones that need to come and grab this opportunity.

“There’s always a time in a franchise where those little cycles come through, and now’s that cycle for us. It’s also a massive opportunity for some young guys to grab that.”

Having never coached at Christchurch’s shiny new One New Zealand Stadium, Hansen admitted he’s excited to implement a running rugby style in 2027, while joking that he had asked Crusaders management if they could open the roof come finals time in June.

“I have asked if the roof at some stage can be open, but it’s a no, based on teams coming down here in the winter, and we knew that we could roll our sleeves up and go to a set piece out in the cold, dark, wet.

“And I know that the the Scooter Barretts and the Sam Whitelock’s used to really enjoy that. The David Havili’s around just kick it and chase. However, the stadium offers us a great opportunity to be really consistent in our game plan.

“It’s a fantastic stadium that’s built for open running rugby. Everything around rugby at the moment is engaging the fans, and that’s exactly the Crusaders style of play now that we can work towards.

“It’s really nice to know that you can have a consistent framing the game model working under the roof and the opportunities that’s going to give us, but also acknowledge what it’s going to give the opposition to around how it’s likely that every team is going to come here and want to run us off the ball again.”