Captain HBC to guide Turbos
Heiden Bedwell-curtis has been confirmed as the Manawatu Turbos captain for 2017.
Coach Jeremy Cotter confirmed the appointment yesterday, with the 40-match loose forward replacing Glasgow-bound Callum Gibbins.
Cotter said after serving as the vice-captain last year, Bedwellcurtis was ready for the promotion.
The Crusaders-contracted player said it was a huge honour.
‘‘I am pretty grateful to be given the opportunity to lead. I am really excited for the season,’’ he said.
Bedwell-curtis has captained the Turbos on four occasions filling in for Gibbins once in 2015 and three times in 2016.
The 25-year-old said his style of leadership would not be based on big speeches.
‘‘I am just a lead-by-example, hard-working [captain],’’ he said. ‘‘I am not really an outspoken kind of person in general, but I definitely have my say and what I say, I like to think, has value.’’
That is a style the Turbos know well having followed Gibbins for the past couple of seasons.
Bedwell-curtis said he had learned plenty from his predecessor.
"I am not really an outspoken kind of person in general, but I definitely have my say and what I say, I like to think, has value." Heiden Bedwell-curtis
‘‘He definitely leads by example,’’ he said. ‘‘He puts everything out on the field for the team. Everything he did for the team and that will be my approach as well.’’
And he will have no lack of options of who to get advice from down at the Crusaders with a host of regular All Blacks on the books, not to mention All Blacks skipper Kieran Read and Crusaders captain Sam Whitelock.
The Crusaders have made a hot start to their 2017 campaign and Bedwell-curtis said it is a pretty happy camp at the moment.
He made his Super Rugby debut for the side at openside flanker against the Reds in March.
‘‘It was a wicked feeling,’’ he said. ‘‘It was a dream come true and a dream I have been striving to get for a couple of years now.’’
‘‘Everyone was asking if I was nervous or scared to get out there, but I wasn’t. I honestly felt that I had played 50-odd games for the Crusaders. It was a weird feeling, but being in and around the guys who are ABS and the amount of planning and prepping they do during the week, you just feel so relaxed and comfortable when you get out there.’’
While he is able to cover all three loose forward positions, even he was surprised to have been handed the No 7 jersey for the match.
‘‘I hadn’t played No 7 since club footy. I have always played Mitre 10 Cup at No 6 or 8, but it was all good.’’
That was his sole game for the franchise so far, but he has been one injury away from a few other games.
‘‘The last three games I have trained to play and warmed up with the team and if someone went down I would have stepped up,’’ he said.
He is back in town this week, but he said there was no chance of him playing a game of club rugby for Feilding with the entire Crusaders squad given a directive to rest during their bye week.
Bedwell-curtis has 40 games and eight tries to his name since his Manawatu debut in 2013.
During that time he has been one of the side’s most consistent performers.
His Super Rugby omission puzzled many within Manawatu until he finally got a contract with the Crusaders at the end of last season.
He was a member of the New Zealand Maori team in 2015, but missed the 2016 squad due to a fractured hip.