Winning title motivation for Cruden
Aaron Cruden claims he’s here to win with the Chiefs.
The first-five put on a stunning performance in the second half of his team’s 37-29 win over the Blues on Friday night that gave everyone a reminder of just how good the former All Black is.
The 31-year-old will only be back at the Chiefs for one season, before heading to Kobe Kobelco Steelers in Japan later this year.
But he says that he’s not back in New Zealand to fill time and his goal is to help the Chiefs win this year’s Super Rugby title.
‘‘I’m trying to add value and a bit of guidance where I can,’’ Cruden said.
‘‘I think we’ve got a relatively young group, but you look right across the Super Rugby franchise and there’s a lot of great young talent coming through.
‘‘If I can add any experience or guidance to those young players, I’ll be really happy with that. But also, I’m a competitor, so I want to win.
‘‘I wouldn’t have come back to play if I didn’t want to be a part of a team that had ambitions to win a title and this team certainly has those ambitions.
‘‘This was a great start, but we know there’s a lot of work to be done before the end of the season.’’
The Chiefs went from a team that was trailing 19-5 at halftime on Friday night to a one that eventually won by a comfortable margin.
Cruden played a big part in that turnaround, with some sublime running, kicking and passing.
‘‘To be fair, I wasn’t expecting 40 minutes, but I got the shoulder tap at halftime and I wanted to contribute anyway I could out there on the field,’’ he said.
‘‘Out there as the No 10 you want to be the general in organising the team and try to put [them] at the right ends of the field and we were probably able to do that.
‘‘You can’t underestimate the boys in the first half too. While it was a bit messy, it probably sapped a lot of energy out of the Blues and then the team in the second half were able to benefit from that.’’
Cruden had tape around his left wrist for the game and written on it were three words: ‘Basic’, ‘calm’ and ‘energy’.
‘‘The coaches encourage us to write a few individual goals for our preparation and for me it’s something I’ve done pretty much my whole career,’’ Cruden explained.
‘‘These ones were just do the basics well, individually and collectively, try to bring a bit of calm and control to the boys and have a lot of energy in what I do as well. I think I was able to do that at times.’’ This was Cruden’s first Super Rugby game since 2017 and he admitted it was tough to adjust to the pace of the game after a few years in the Top 14 in Europe.
‘‘It was fast, in the last 10 minutes I had an extremely dry mouth and I was looking to the sidelines for some water,’’ he said. ‘‘But it’s a style of rugby that
I love, especially the New Zealand teams but also the other teams in Super Rugby all play in a positive style.
‘‘It’s trying to put your team into positions to execute and that’s what I love about it, it’s like a game of chess, you’re trying to move pieces of the puzzle here and there to gain ascendancy’’
‘‘I wouldn’t have come back to play if I didn’t want to be a part of a team that had ambitions to win a title . . .’’ Chiefs first-five Aaron Cruden