Cruden's revised contract fuels Super Rugby rumours

NEWS: Aaron Cruden could be angling for a switch back to Super Rugby following confirmation in France regarding his contract for the new 2019/20 season.

Montpellier, the French club the former All Black has been with since 2017 on a €700,000 a year deal, have announced that the playmaker will continue his stint at the club, but only as a World Cup cover medical joker until November 18.

It is the same type of scenario the Vern Cotter-coached club has reached with Jannie du Plessis, the former Springbok agreeing to provide cover until the World Cup is over and the international players missing from Montpellier are back in France.

“Aaron Cruden, a New Zealand international who joined the club in 2017, will stay in Montpellier during the World Cup season,” said a club statement.

“Jannie du Plessis, an international Springbok at the club since 2015, will also be hired as a World Cup joker. In parallel, he will continue to carry out his missions within the training centre.”

There has already been speculation this past week that Cruden could be a target for the Hurricanes now that Beauden Barrett has decided to join the Blues in Auckland, but confirmation of his latest contract arrangement in France would suit any potential return to Super Rugby.

Cruden’s future has been much speculated on in 2019, with Bath and particular Dave Rennie’s Glasgow linked to the New Zealander. None of that speculation came to fruition, leaving Cruden to round off a frustrating, injury-hit season in Montpellier where the last of his 13 starts in a 27-game league season came in the play-off defeat to Lyon.

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