{"id":392044,"date":"2026-04-22T11:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T11:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/392044\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T11:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T11:50:08","slug":"aggressive-northern-hemisphere-harming-new-zealand-rugby-after-riley-higgins-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/392044\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Aggressive’ northern hemisphere harming New Zealand rugby after Riley Higgins exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hurricanes boss Clark Laidlaw admits that it is difficult to keep hold of their \u201cmiddle tier\u201d players amid the northern hemisphere\u2019s \u201caggressive\u201d recruitment strategy.<\/p>\n

It was announced recently that talented centre Riley Higgins will depart the Wellington franchise to join Edinburgh on a three-year deal from next season.<\/p>\n

Higgins is Scottish-qualified and could well become the latest \u2018Kilted Kiwi\u2019 to ply his trade at international level.<\/p>\n

Fergus Burke and Tom Jordan are the most recent examples of New Zealand-born<\/a> players to feature for the Scots<\/a> with the trend started by Sean Lineen in the late-1980s and early-1990s.<\/p>\n

Higgins, the 23-year-old Canes centre, may well tread the same path after qualifying for Gregor Townsend\u2019s men through his grandmother.<\/p>\n

Comparison to Hoskins Sotutu<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can probably offer more money than us, and he qualifies for Scotland. It\u2019s like a Hoskins Sotutu too, I guess, isn\u2019t it? Is he more worthwhile going to England because he qualifies for England? With the rules they have over there, then yes,\u201d Laidlaw told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese countries are aggressive. They know all the players who are Scottish or Irish-qualified and they\u2019re actively trying to recruit, but it\u2019s just part of the professional game, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure it\u2019s worrying as such, but it\u2019s definitely going to keep happening, especially with guys who aren\u2019t cap-tied and qualify for other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scottish-qualified Hurricanes centre \u2018who was keeping All Blacks out\u2019 heads to URC as Tuipulotu makes decision on future<\/a><\/p>\n

Laidlaw himself is Scottish-born, playing for Border Reivers and representing the national sevens team, but he is only looking after Hurricanes<\/a> interests at the moment.<\/p>\n

The 48-year-old stated that they wanted to keep Higgins but he had already set his sights on moving to Edinburgh.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really difficult to keep that middle tier when it comes to the budget, Riley\u2019s Scottish-qualified and the good thing about Riley\u2019s decision is he could have went somewhere else for more money, because he had other options,\u201d Laidlaw said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had an option to stay here. We genuinely offered him a two-year contract, and we\u2019d love him to stay and keep that strength in depth. But what I quite like about his decision is he\u2019s still made it for the rugby reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wants to go there and prove himself over there, and if he\u2019s good enough to play for Scotland or play and start for Edinburgh, play well and be considered, that\u2019s the probably deeper part of his reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Limited game time<\/p>\n

Higgins has the rather significant figure of Jordie Barrett ahead of him in the pecking order, which has played a part in limiting his game time to one substitute appearance during the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a juggling act when you\u2019ve got more than one good player in each position. It\u2019s like our loose forwards \u2013 how do you keep everybody happy? The short answer is you can\u2019t, but Riley made his decision a while ago,\u201d Laidlaw added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not been based on whether he\u2019s been getting a game in the last couple of weeks. He\u2019s actually injured and taken out for a couple of weeks so he\u2019s not available either.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Hurricanes boss defends Cam Roigard decision amid All Blacks legend\u2019s \u2018filthy\u2019 claim<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hurricanes boss Clark Laidlaw admits that it is difficult to keep hold of their \u201cmiddle tier\u201d players amid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43309,1463,49155,1464,111,43,139,69,11063,82286,40417],"class_list":{"0":"post-392044","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-edinburgh","9":"tag-home-page","10":"tag-hurricanes","11":"tag-internationals","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-scotland","17":"tag-super-rugby","18":"tag-united-rugby-championship"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}