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All Black Kerr-Barlow to make La Rochelle switch
By Peter Thompson
New Zealand scrum-half Tawera Kerr-Barlow will leave Chiefs to join La Rochelle at the end of the Super Rugby season.
The 26-year-old playmaker, who won his 25th cap for the All Blacks against Italy last November, has agreed a three-year deal with the Top 14 leaders.
Aaron Cruden decided to turn his back on the world champions and Chiefs to join Montpellier later this year and Kerr-Barlow has also opted to take up a new challenge in France.
"It was an extremely hard decision to make, but I feel it is the right one for my family and myself," said Kerr-Barlow.
"I've always wanted to play rugby in New Zealand and to represent teams like Waikato and the Chiefs which is where my family comes from.
"It was a childhood dream of mine to become an All Black and it has been a privilege to represent my country.
"I had really good contact with the Chiefs and the All Blacks throughout the process, but ultimately the opportunity to play rugby with La Rochelle and experience the French culture with my family was the right decision for me."
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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