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New Zealand forward Ardie Savea says the opportunity to earn a significant payday was the main reason behind his decision to join Japan’s Kobelco Kobe Steelers after the Rugby World Cup this year.
Savea, who has played 70 times for the All Blacks, will lead the Wellington Hurricanes into the upcoming Super Rugby season and will make the move to Japan once the Rugby World Cup has been completed in France in October.
“Plain and simple – to set up my family. The money’s good, I’m not going to lie,” Savea said of his reason for the switch.
“It’s an opportunity to set up my family and also to try something new. It’s a bit of a challenge and hopefully it puts me on my toes.
(Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images)
“Not that I’m not on my toes here, but there’s just something about going into a new environment and feeling young and being a rookie again.
“Hopefully that sparks something in me to keep going for a few more years.”
Savea is one of several high-profile All Blacks who will leave New Zealand to play in Japan, with Richie Mo’unga previously announcing he will join Tokyo-based Toshiba Brave Lupus with his All Blacks teammate Shannon Frizell.
Others are expected to follow upon the conclusion of the World Cup and Savea admitted he wanted to sign-off on the move as soon as possible to avoid missing out on the opportunity.
“To be honest, I just put the feelers out and whatever club came first that was interested I was just keen to get a signed deal,” said Savea.
“Obviously, it’s post-World Cup so there are so many players looking to go to Japan and international quotas would get filled up so I just wanted to get in early.”
England just can’t quite escape the shadow of their old mentor Eddie Jones.
But new coach Steve Borthwick is urging England fans to throw their weight behind his quest to transform the team’s fortunes.
Just two months after Jones’ England were booed off the same pitch in reaction to their collapse against South Africa, Borthwick will take charge for the first time.
The discontent so clearly in the air at the conclusion of the Australian coach’s final match in charge contributed to his sacking, but the Six Nations offers a fresh start for England in World Cup year that Borthwick is determined to grab.
“The message I give to the supporters will be a pretty simple one in the sense that, in every single study I ever read, the impact of home support is worth more than any one player,” Borthwick said.
“So I ask them to be behind this team. This is the first step of the team. It’s the first step right now, in this next chapter of the England team.
“This is a group of players that care so much about the England rugby team. I know I do, so I ask them to get behind this team and lift this team, as they always do.
Eddie Jones with Steve Borthwick. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
“There will be mistakes on Saturday but I want the players fighting, the players getting to the next battle, the players bringing all the strengths they have into the England shirt.
“And I think that the players will show that fight and that determination. We want to make the supporters proud and want the players to be proud of the team. And we want that to start on Saturday.”
Scotland have taken a stranglehold on the Calcutta Cup since 2017, winning three of the five meetings and drawing another.
“I know there’s a lot of England supporters who will be disappointed by that. I can’t rewrite history, neither can the players. All we can do is influence what is going to happen in the future,” Borthwick said.
“What will Scotland bring this weekend? I don’t know. I’m going to concentrate on what we’re going to bring. We have good players ready to go this weekend.”
But just when Twickenham bosses thought they could get on with Saturday’s Six Nations Championship without any input from their former coach who’s now back in his green-and-gold element with the Wallabies, Jones has popped up to offer his prediction for his old team’s first game without him.
The good news for England fans? Jones, not sitting on the fence as usual in his new podcast titled EDDIE, reckons they’ll win their Calcutta Cup clash against Scotland on Saturday by three points, courtesy of a penalty from his former captain Owen Farrell.
So Jones, whose last outing at Twickenham before he got sacked by RFU chiefs in December ended in boos from fans unhappy about the turgid defeat by South Africa, fancies his successor Steve Borthwick will end up celebrating his first match in charge.
That will be more than Jones himself managed two years ago at the same venue when the Scots won for the first time at HQ for 38 years.
Steve Borthwick and Eddie Jones. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
But it seems Jones still remembers being burnt by the excellence of Finn Russell that day as he predicts the result will hinge on how the mercurial Scottish five-eighth performs.
“He (Russell) gives Scotland an outstanding chance to win,” Jones said.
“It also means that if England get on top, Scotland will probably get hammered because he will keep taking risks under pressure and will give England more opportunities to score.”
Of the game’s coaching battle between his former assistant Borthwick and Scotland’s Gregor Townsend, Jones added: “They are two very good coaches – Steve is methodical, Gregor more wants to do different things, wants to play the game differently.”
After the boos that became the soundtrack to the end of the Eddie Jones era in English rugby, new coach Steve Borthwick wants the cheers back at Twickenham.
For his part,
© AAP
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