1
World Cup-winning former All Black Richard Kahui signs with Western Force
By AAP
Western Force have signed veteran former All Black Richard Kahui to bolster their backline for the remainder of the Super Rugby AU season.
Kahui, 35, has joined the Force at their Hunter Valley hub after undergoing a two-week quarantine period and will be available for Friday's round three game against the Queensland Reds at Suncorp Stadium.
The outside back arrives after seven seasons of club rugby in Japan, a stint that began soon after he helped New Zealand win the 2011 Rugby World Cup on home soil.
Western Force head of rugby Matt Hodgson said Kahui's addition was invaluable because of his experience.
"His knowledge of the game, defensive ability and the level of professionalism he brings to training will be huge for our season, we can't wait to see him out there in the blue and black," Hodgson said.
"It's not just his on-field exploits that we're excited about, as his insight and winning mentality are sure to prove invaluable for the entire team."
Kahui's career has predominantly been at outside centre although he was on the wing during the All Blacks' 2011 World Cup success.
He helped the Chiefs subsequently win twin Super Rugby titles before his lengthy stint with Japanese Top League outfit Toshiba Brave Lupus.
He joins two other Kiwis in the Force squad - lock Jeremy Thrush and flanker Johan Bardoul, who were both involved in last week's 23-14 loss to the Waratahs in Sydney.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
England No8 Billy Vunipola tasered and arrested in Spain
3
Saints boss Dowson reacts to controversial Care incident
4
Fissler Confidential: Radwan eyed to replace exit-bound England wing
5
Latest Comments
Finau is definitely operating on razor thin margins. He hasn’t done anything wrong… yet. But a player going into contact 6 inches lower than he is expecting, without him even knowing, will end in disaster. You can imagine a situation where the pass dies on Edmed and he has to bend down a little lower to catch it at the last second. Finau’s hit would have been catastrophic. The margins are just too fine. He needs to study how PSDT, at 6’7”, manages to drop his tackle height and exert just as much force with close zero danger of taking someone’s head off. Given how poorly NZ has adapted to lower their tackle height, and that this issue which has plagued the ABs for years and played a big part in them not winning the World Cup, I thought NZR and all SR coaches would be prioritising sorting this issue out. If I was Razor I would be on the phone to Clayton MacMillan and Samipeni Finau saying exactly that. Finau is a monster and shaping up to be the closest thing to Kaino since Kaino, but I wouldn’t risk selecting him for the ABs at the moment.
Go to commentsThe surprising stat I saw in the Blues game when showing Sotutu equaling the Blues forwards record was that Akira has not scored a try since 2019. Now my memory is pretty bad when it comes to those sorts of the things, I can remember his AB try though, but anyway I can’t see I can remember his last blues touchdown or any in recent years. Surely that still has to be a bogus stat. Maybe excludes SRA games?
Go to comments