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Crusaders bolster injury-hit fullback stocks with return of Johnny McNicholl
By Ned Lester
The Crusaders have brought in another Welsh international fullback to help ease the burden of losing All Black Will Jordan as well as Leigh Halfpenny, bringing back former Crusader Johnny McNicholl.
McNicholl was a member of the club from 2014-16, earning 39 caps before departing for Scarlets where he donned a different red on over 120 occasions.
The outside back's form was recognised in 2020 when he was called into the Wales team and earned an international debut against France in the Six Nations.
The 33-year-old returns to the club he began his professional career with to help cover for his former Scarlets teammate Halfpenny, who suffered a chest injury in his pre-season debut for the reigning Super Rugby Pacific champions.
“I’m really looking forward to running out in front of the home crowd again, I didn’t think I’d get that opportunity again so yeah, it’s pretty special,” McNicholl said.
“It’s also great for me and my family to be coming back home after a decent stint overseas.”
Chay Fihaki has stepped into the 15 jersey with the injury crisis at the position and will be McNicholl's direct competition for the role.
Crusaders coach Rob Penney said he was “thrilled to welcome Johnny back."
“Johnny’s a top-notch operator with proven experience and like any good fullback, he has the potential to produce magic from anywhere on the field,” Penney said.
“We’re looking forward to seeing him back in the colours in 2024.”
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Latest Comments
BB can’t pass? Right…
Go to commentsEven the 20/30 cappers did too I reckon.
IDK, I think Jordan has a limited life span in this side unless he can develop more to his game. Like you go on to mention, I think theyres more important things to worry about than the effectiveness of someone's extra strings, or secondary components to their game.
Bash backs are Fosters thing, and to a large part they've made it work. Theyre now one of the best teams in the world.
They boy's trucked it up a bit against Italy in the redzone, and against France, wasn't that effective without the right players probably.
Try and take a look at it this way. Dissapointed Havili and Blackadder were in the side? Havili despite clearly shown that he can't do what the team needs at 12 was kept on for the RWC. Back goes down and he brings in Blackadder who doesn't play. Refuses to drop Christie when he should and look who starts this season. Beauden Barret not playing well enough to keep his 10 jersey but we gotta keep him in the side. Weve only got one 8, we stuff developing another I'll just play Ardie every game.
This years team wasn't burdened overly with injuries but they were in every position Razor might have wanted to try and development, severely limiting options. I'm not defending Razor as there was also plenty of other opportunity to make up for it and he was a little gunshy, but I'm also not going to overly criticise him because he chose cohesion over a black slate.
I think more and more people are on board with it being time to try alternatives, but then again, how would they have reacted to a loss against Italy? 😉
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