Hurricanes boss: Savea’s NRL talk ‘not serious’
The Hurricanes do not expect to lose Ardie Savea to rugby league.
Savea told the Ice Project podcast, hosted by former Warriors halfback Isaac John, that he had been thinking about trying his hand at the 13-man code potentially as early as next year.
‘‘One-hundred per cent I want to play rugby league, I think they [the players] do a lot more in terms of off the field stuff. And also, just a new challenge. I want to test myself,’’ Savea said.
The podcast was released on
Sunday. Hurricanes chief executive Avan Lee has since spoken to Savea about it.
Lee said he was not worried by the comments.
‘‘I had a chat with Ardie to see where he was coming from. We had a good catchup for 10 minutes and at the end of the day he’s shown some interest in rugby league, we don’t know how much seriousness is attached to it, but he’s been on a podcast and has raised the point.
‘‘We’re not worried about Ardie leaving the Canes or rugby.
‘‘A lot of athletes have interest in other sports, they watch other sports . . . he’s expressed an interest in rugby league.
‘‘We don’t see it as anything more than that.’’
Savea is contracted to New Zealand Rugby and the Hurricanes until the end of 2021 and Lee said there had been no discussion around that changing.
‘‘We haven’t had any talks with his agent or Ardie formally around what that looks like, and neither have New Zealand Rugby.
‘‘For us, it’s a non-issue, I’ve spoken to him and he’s 100 per cent focused on getting back on the field. For us, it’s not even a blip.’’
That being said, Lee said it did come as a surprise to him.
‘‘He’s on a lot of different social media channels and appears on podcasts. Some of that is just the way the world is now around talking to your fans directly, rather than through the media.
‘‘At the end of the day, it was a surprise, but nothing surprises you in the same respect.
‘‘I don’t think it’s serious. It’s a comment he made to a rugby league guy on a podcast – we’ve had a joke about it to be honest.’’
Savea’s progress back from his off-season knee injury has ramped up in recent weeks, with Hurricanes coach Jason Holland saying he could be back sooner than their original plan of the round-13 bye.
‘‘He’s contributing massively to our environment at the moment.
‘‘We had the bye week as a conservative date for him, but all going well it could be a week or two earlier than that.
‘‘We don’t want to put an exact date on it as we don’t want to put pressure on it and see him speed up through the process, so I reckon the bye week or maybe the Blues or Highlanders before that.’’