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Simon Hickey rearing for return to Super Rugby after 2021's false start
While the absence of Richie Mo’unga may be a difficult challenge for the Crusaders to navigate in the opening rounds of the Super Rugby Pacific season, it does present an opportunity for the back-up first fives in the squad to earn some valuable minutes in the No 10 jersey.
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Mo’unga will miss the first three rounds of action, with the Crusaders are set to play the Hurricanes, Highlanders and Moana Pasifika, and it’s likely one of Simon Hickey or Fergus Burke will take the reins in his absence – although David Havili could be a left-field selection to fill the void.
Burke is in his third year of Super Rugby now but has earned just one start in his career to date while Hickey returned from Europe early last season to link up with the Hurricanes after previously representing the Blues back in 2014 and 2015. Hickey never had the opportunity to take the field for his new side last year, however, after rupturing his ACL during the pre-season.
But the recovery from that injury is well and truly done and dusted now and Hickey is confident that he’ll be at his full potential if given the opportunity to run out against his old side in the opening weekend of Super Rugby Pacific on Saturday.
“I’ve got full confidence in it now,” Hickey told media on Tuesday. “It’s my first long-term injury so it’s been a bit of a process and it did take a wee while to get that confidence back but I’m 12 months post-surgery now and really confident playing in the weekend against the Hurricanes in that last warm-up, I wasn’t thinking about [the knee] at all, just worried about playing footy. Hopefully, it all goes well but confidence is there.”
While Hickey is the more senior of the two five-eighth options at coach Scott Robertson’s disposal, having earned 14 caps for the Blues as well as notching up almost 80 appearances for Edinburgh and Bordeaux Begles during his time overseas, Burke has slowly been groomed as a potential long-term successor to Mo’unga in the No 10 jersey. As such, either player is a reasonable candidate to fill in against the Hurricanes this week and the pair have been pushing themselves at training.
“With Richie missing the first few weeks of competition there’s obviously an opportunity there for one of us to get a bit of game time,” Hickey acknowledged. “It’s been good competition, we’ve been helping each other, working together. I think it’s been a good pre-season for us both so hopefully both get an opportunity during the first weeks of competition and hopefully both go well.”
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With the New Zealand sides basing themselves in Queenstown for the opening three rounds of the competition, Mo’unga hasn’t travelled with the team from Christchurch. He did, however, put in plenty of work with the Crusaders during the pre-season and was a valuable resource for his understudies.
“He was in at training,” said Hickey. “He was floating around for a couple of weeks before we shot down to Queenstown.
“It was good to pick his brain a wee bit. He’s obviously an outstanding player and I was lucky enough to play with Richie back in New Zealand Under 20s which was about eight years ago or something now. He’s been floating around and he’s been giving his bits of knowledge and things which has been real helpful for Ferg and I and just the team in general.”
The Hurricanes have been the only side to best the Crusaders in Christchurch in recent times (and scored a narrow win in last weekend’s pre-season clash between the two sides) and while Saturday’s match is taking place outside of Crusaders territory, playing under the lights of Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin may feel slightly more homely for the South Islanders than their more northern opposition.
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Although Hickey did spend last season with the Hurricanes, even though he was sidelined through injury, the 28-year-old suggested that his intel likely wouldn’t help his new team significantly in Saturday’s match-up.
“It is a funny one. It was cool, I really enjoyed playing against them in the weekend,” he said. “I’ve got quite a few good friends in the Hurricanes team so it was cool to play against them and catch up.
“There’s still a few similarities in the way they play their game so picked up a few little bits but I think come Saturday night they’ll have a few tricks up their sleeve, just as we will, so we’ll see how we go there.”
On a more personal note, Hickey will just be looking forward to getting back onto the pitch after his NZ return was undermined during last year’s pre-season.
“It does [feel like a long time between drinks],” he said. “I’m just so stoked to be back on the field playing footy again. It was a long year last year, obviously doing my knee and not playing. Just stoked to be back out, stoked that Razor and the Crusaders have the confidence in me to give me a shot to come down here and just happy playing rugby again.”
Saturday’s match between the Crusaders and Hurricanes kicks off at 7:05pm NZT.
Comments on RugbyPass
What happened to feleti Kaitu’u? Hasnt played in a while right?
1 Go to commentsGregor I just can’t agree with you. You are trying to find something that just isn’t there. Jordie Barrett has signed until 2028. By the end of that he would have spent probably 11-12 years on Super Rugby and you say he can’t possibly have one season playing somewhere else. It is absurd. What about this scenario, the NZR play hard ball and he decides to leave and play overseas. How would that affect the competition. There seems to be an agenda by certain journalists to push certain agendas and don’t like it when it’s not to their liking. I fully support the NZR on this. Gregor needs to get a life.
2 Go to commentsHope he stays as believe he can do a great job.
1 Go to commentsMake what step up? Manie has a World Cup winner’s medal around his neck and changed the way the Springboks can play. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. The win record of the Boks with him in the team is tremendous. Sacha can be wonderful and I hope he has a very succesful Bok career, but comparing him to Manie in terms of the next Bok flyhalf is very strange. Manie is the incumbent (not the next) and doing pretty incredibly.
1 Go to comments00 😍 U
1 Go to commentsSabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.
2 Go to commentsJake White talks more sense than anything I've read in the last 5 years. Hope someone's listening.
9 Go to commentsThe Springboks tried going down the road of only picking home-based players and it was an unmitigated disaster in 2016 and 2017. Picking overseas-based players has been one of the main reason the Boks have done so well since 2018, not only because of the quality Rassie could call on, but because of the knowledge and experience those players brought into camp from England, France and Japan. With some of the big names playing abroad it also gave younger players in SA the chance to break through at franchise level. Would we have seen the emergence of a Ruan Nortje if RG and Lood were still at the Bulls? Not so sure. I understand why Jake would want to block players leaving since his job depends on good results but it’s an approach that would take Bok rugby back to the bad old days and no South African wants to see that.
9 Go to commentsExeter were thumped by 38 points. And they only had to hop on a train.
39 Go to commentsI am De Groot.
1 Go to commentsHad hoped you might write an article on this game, Nick. It’s a good one. Things have not gone as smoothly for ROG since beating Leinster last year at the Aviva in the CC final. LAR had the Top 14 Final won till Raymond Rhule missed a simple tackle on the excellent Ntamack, and Toulouse reaped the rewards of just staying in the fight till the death. Then the disruption of the RWC this season. LAR have not handled that well, but they were not alone, and we saw Pau heading the Top 14 table at one stage early season. I would think one of the reasons for the poor showing would have to be that the younger players coming through, and the more mature amongst the group outside the top 25/30, are not as strong as would be hoped for. I note that Romain Sazy retired at the end of last season. He had been with LAR since 2010, and was thus one of their foundation players when they were promoted to Top 14. Records show he ended up with 336 games played with LAR. That is some experience, some rock in the team. He has been replaced for the most part by Ultan Dillane. At 30, Dillane is not young, but given the chances, he may be a fair enough replacement for Sazy. But that won’be for more than a few years. I honestly know little of the pathways into the LAR setup from within France. I did read somewhere a couple of years ago that on the way up to Top 14, the club very successfully picked up players from the academies of other French teams who were not offered places by those teams. These guys were often great signings…can’t find the article right now, so can’t name any….but the Tadgh Beirne type players. So all in all, it will be interesting to see where the replacements for all the older players come from. Only Lleyd’s and Rhule from SA currently, both backs. So maybe a few SA forwards ?? By contrast, Leinster have a pretty clear line of good players coming through in the majority of positions. Props maybe a weak spot ? And they are very fleet footed and shrewd in appointing very good coaches. Or maybe it is also true that very good coaches do very well in the Leinster setup. So, Nick, I would fully concurr that “On the evidence of Saturday’s semi-final between the two clubs, the rebuild in the Bay of Biscay is going to take longer than it is on the east coast of Ireland”
11 Go to commentsWhat was the excuse for the other knockout blowouts then? Does the result not prove the Saints were just so much better? Wise call to put your eggs in one basket when you’ve got 2 comps simultaneously finishing.
39 Go to commentsReally hope Kuruvoli and his partner rock the Canes.
1 Go to commentsI wonder what impact Samson has had on their attack, as the team seems less prone to trundle it up the middle, take the tackle and then trundle it up again. I lost faith in the coach last year as the Rebelss looked like a 2nd/3rd rate South African team. I also disliked Gordon standing back, often ignored as the forward battle went on and on. Maybe its our Aussie way of not getting off our A***’s until the enemy is at the gate.
86 Go to commentsThanks for the write up. Great to see the Rebs winning, I am a little interested in how they will go against the remaining kiwi teams, I think they’ve only played Hurricanes and Highlanders but how great to see these players performing!! I also see Parling has a job beyond June 30! A good move by RA? Also how do you fix the Rebels previously scratchy defence?
86 Go to commentsbe smart - go black
13 Go to commentsNext week the Crusaders hopefully have Scott Barrett back. Will be great to have the captain back. Hopefully he will be the All Black captain as well.
12 Go to commentsExciting place to be for the young fella. I expected he was French Polynesian when I saw him included in the France 6N squad (after seeing him in NZs), and therefor be strong grounds we might loose him to rugby down here. Good, in that he is good enough to warrant such a profile, and from a journalism’s fan interaction aspect, to finally get a back ground story on the fella. Hope he has settled into NZ OK and that at least one rugby country will fit with him to help his development, which, if so, he should surely continue for a few years, and then that he can experience France to it’s fullest with a bit more maturity and less reliance on family than you would have at his current age. A good 3 or 4 years before he would be ready for International duty if he wanted to wait. Of course he already sounds good enough to accept a call up, and to cap himself, in the more immediate future (he’d have to be very very good in the case of the ABs), and he’ll get a great taste of that being with the Canes who have a bunch who are just a few years further into their career and looking likely Internationals themselves.
13 Go to commentsI remember towards the end of the original broadcasting deal for Super rugby with Newscorp that there was talk about the competition expanding to improve negotiations for more money - more content, more cash. Professional rugby was still in its infancy then and I held an opposing view that if Super rugby was a truly valuable competition then it should attract more broadcasters to bid for the rights, thereby increasing the value without needing to add more teams and games. Unfortunately since the game turned professional, the tension between club, talent and country has only grown further. I would argue we’re already at a point in time where the present is the future. The only international competitions that matter are 6N, RC and RWC. The inter-hemisphere tours are only developmental for those competitions. The games that increasingly matter more to fans, sponsors and broadcasters are between the clubs. Particularly for European fans, there are multiple competitions to follow your teams fortunes every week. SA is not Europe but competes in a single continental competition, so the travel component will always be an impediment. It was worse in the bloated days of Super rugby when teams traversed between four continents - Africa, America, Asia and Australia. The percentage of players who represent their country is less than 5% of the professional player base, so the sense of sacrifice isn’t as strong a motivation for the rest who are more focused on playing professional rugby and earning as much from their body as they can. Rugby like cricket created the conundrum it’s constantly fighting a losing battle with.
9 Go to commentsOh wow… “But as La Rochelle proved in winning in Cape Town this season, a cross-continental away assignment need not spell the end of days.” La Rochelle actually proved quite the opposite. After traveling to Cape town and back they (back-to-back and current champs) got mercilessly thumped the next week. If travel is not the reason, why else would a full-strength powerhouse like La Rochelle get dumped on their @r$e$ one week later?
39 Go to comments