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Brumbies leader re-commits
By Online Editors
The Brumbies have announced that flyhalf Christian Lealiifano has committed to the club for the 2019 Super Rugby season by signing a new one-year deal.
Lealiifano, who has played 133 games for the Brumbies and is second on the all-time points scoring list with a total of 845 points, signed the deal prior to heading to Japan for a stint with Toyota Shokki in the Japanese Top League.
“I am really excited to have another year with the Brumbies” Lealiifano commented when the agreement was announced.
“The biggest factor was the excitement I felt about the future of the club. I love the fact that there is young talent coming through and being able to lead the side was special for me, hopefully I can still add something to the future of the club.
“It’s always an honour to able to lead the Brumbies. There’s been some fantastic leaders here in the past and for me, that role has always been about mentoring guys and making sure that, like when I was a kid coming through, that there’s someone to help and to make it easier for them to cope with the step up to Super Rugby.
“A Super Rugby title is something which always drives you and motivates you each day and it’s something I’ve been chasing for a while now and that I got close to in 2013. That’s the end goal but it’s also about making sure the Brumbies is in a better place for the future as well.”
Lealiifano made his Super Rugby debut for the club back in 2008 against the Crusaders in Christchurch and has also been capped nineteen times by the Wallabies, making his test bow in the rarefied atmosphere of a British & Irish Lions Tour in 2013.
Since then he has pulled the strings from flyhalf for his club and become a fan favourite with the Brumbies and Australian faithful, recovering from a serious illness to reclaim his place in the Brumbies starting XV.
“Christian brings leadership and experience to the team,” Brumbies Head Coach Dan McKellar commented. “His performances have really developed and improved over the course of the season. He’s a vital part of the team and it’s nice to have him signed for another season.”
“He has got a great understanding of how we want to play the game and where our game is headed, particularly how we are developing our attacking game. It’s always nice to have that stability, and we have that in Christian wearing that number ten jersey again next season.”
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Latest Comments
“Explain clearly how that’s not an achievement?”
It is an achievement. It is less of an achievement than he managed with Barcelona. You said that ”He has gotten better with age. By every measure.” He hasn’t. Doesn’t mean he isn’t still extremely good though!
”I thought you don’t care what certain managers did 10 years ago…”
are you really this incapable of understanding the context of what I’m saying? My point is that Gatland was a good coach ten years ago, and isn’t a good coach now. So what he did ten years ago is relevant to whether he was good ten years ago - that is pretty basic stuff.
On the other hand, what Les Kiss did ten years ago isn’t relevant to how good he is now, just as what Gatland did ten years ago isn’t relevant to how good he is now.
”So you haven’t watched even a minute of Super Rugby this year?”
I was replying to your comment, given you have the memory of a goldfish and are unable to scroll up, I’m remind you what you said:
“Ireland won a long over due slam in 2009. The last embers of a golden generation was kicked on by a handful of young new players and a new senior coach. Kiss was brought in as defence coach and was the reason they won it. They’d the best defence in the game at the time. He all but invented the choke tackle. Fittingly they backed it up in the next world cup in their 2011 pool match against… Australia. The instantly iconic image of Will Genia getting rag-dolled by Stephen Ferris.”
Go to commentsMaybe, but it was not my comment. I just wanted to say that a lot of these articles which are speaking of top14 clubs interest in players transfer on all the planet are not all very serious. But if it helps these players for better contracts, why not…
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