The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

Crusaders poach Australian schoolboy star

(Photo by Martin Hunter/Getty Images)
12th August, 2018
80

Schoolboy star Campbell Parata has promised his future to the Crusaders despite having played his most promising footy on Australian soil.

The New Zealand-born first-five eighth moved to Western Australia with his family but has set his sights on a return to his homeland.

“He’s a New Zealand kid and a lovely kid, and mum and dad are really nice people but at the end of the day they’re from New Zealand and always wanted to go back there,” said head of national XVs programmes Adrian Thompson.

“It’s a bit different to Nick Frost who chose the Crusaders ahead of the Waratahs, for example. It was more the fact that the kid just wants to go home.”

Thompson said that he and Junior Wallabies coach Jason Gilmore had been in touch with Parata in April.

“We touched base with them and got them down to watch the 20s final and everything, but they came back to us and just said that they were keen to go home,” he said.

close