{"id":204684,"date":"2025-10-11T05:06:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T05:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/204684\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T05:06:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T05:06:09","slug":"crusaders-prospect-harry-inch-linked-with-nz-warriors-in-nrl-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/204684\/","title":{"rendered":"Crusaders prospect Harry Inch linked with NZ Warriors in NRL move"},"content":{"rendered":"

After gaining selection in the Crusaders development programme, Inch had some game time in pre-season, lining up outside veteran pivot James O\u2019Connor against the Blues at Kirwee. <\/p>\n

The Crusaders clearly saw huge potential in Inch, who had previously turned down the Warriors. Crusaders assistant coach James Marshall spoke at the start of the year about how pleased they were to have him. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to fight pretty hard to keep him away from the Warriors, who offered him a pretty long-term deal up there. I was just stoked that we could get him in the environment because, man, I see a massive future for him,\u201d said Crusaders assistant coach James Marshall in February.<\/p>\n

\"HarryHarry Inch in action for Nelson College against Hamilton Boys’ High. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s so tough. He\u2019s just not afraid of anything. He\u2019s a farmer, [with] farmer strength. He beats all the boys in the wrestles in the gym and he\u2019s just a kid out of school,\u201d said Marshall. <\/p>\n

Inch was regarded by the Crusaders as a long-term prospect at either 10 or 12. It\u2019s not clear yet where he would play in the 13-man code.<\/p>\n

New Zealand Warriors head of recruitment Andrew McFadden told the Herald \u201cthere\u2019s interest there\u201d but \u201cnothing\u2019s been achieved\u201d, suggesting the move is yet to be finalised.<\/p>\n

Reported to be joining Inch in the code switch is his long-time teammate Saumaki Saumaki. The powerful loose forward is thought to be taking his talents to South Sydney next season, joining the Rabbitohs. Saumaki and Inch were in Nelson College\u2019s First XV that finished runners-up to Hamilton Boys\u2019 High School in the 2024 Top Four final. They were both selected for NZ Secondary Schools last year and both turned out for High School Old Boys in the Christchurch club competition in 2025 and the Crusaders U20s.<\/p>\n

\"HarrisonHarrison Inch (holding trophy) and Saumaki Saumaki (right), two of the standout players for Nelson College in 2024. Photo \/ JDW Photography<\/p>\n

Crusaders CEO Colin Mansbridge says the franchise is \u201cdisappointed not to retain them\u201d and \u201cwish them all the best\u201d with their futures.<\/p>\n

Management for both players has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n

Mike Thorpe<\/a> is a senior multimedia journalist for the Herald, based in Christchurch. He has been a broadcast journalist across television and radio for 20 years and joined the Herald in August 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After gaining selection in the Crusaders development programme, Inch had some game time in pre-season, lining up outside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[10968,64,63,22806,127248,33087,29897,127250,57055,191,4717,127247,78969,86199,34827,8844,761,762,158,1697,29166,127249,44985,85,27837,23929,7893,3198,3605,2969,3205],"class_list":["post-204684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-10968","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-been","tag-brightest","tag-code","tag-crusaders","tag-gutted","tag-harry","tag-home","tag-in","tag-inch","tag-leaving","tag-linked","tag-most","tag-move","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-nz","tag-prospect","tag-recognisable","tag-rugbys","tag-sports","tag-switch","tag-talents","tag-union","tag-warriors","tag-with","tag-young","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}