\u201cTo be able to live out my dream here for around 15 years and be part of this legacy with some of the best players that have ever come through this club, it\u2019s been an extreme honour.\u201d<\/p>\n
Havili, who missed out on the All Blacks squad<\/a> announced on Monday, was contracted to New Zealand Rugby through until 2027, having only re-signed last year, but it included the option to terminate the final year of the deal.<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t want to disclose yet which Japanese club he had signed for, but did say it is a two-year deal and that he will stick around to play one more NPC campaign with Tasman.<\/p>\n Primarily a centre, Havili also had the capability to play on the wing, fullback and first five-eighths.<\/p>\n In total, Havili won six Super Rugby titles during his time with the Crusaders, most recently in 2025<\/a> when he captained the side to victory over the Chiefs<\/a>. <\/p>\n Havili also brought success to Tasman, helping the Mako win back-to-back NPC titles in 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n Havili made his All Blacks debut in 2017 and went on to play 30 tests and two tour matches, scoring nine tries. His most recent test was in 2024 against Italy.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very content,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cNot a lot of emotion leaving because I know that I\u2019ve done everything I can, and very proud of my journey, where I\u2019ve come from.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be able to live out my dream here for over 15 years and be a part of this legacy with some of the best players that ever come through here in the world is an extreme honour.\u201d<\/p>\n Havili is confident the Crusaders will excel under Hansen, although their midfield depth will be tested with Braydon Ennor and Dallas McLeod also departing, while Leicester Fainga\u02bbanuku played in the loose forwards at the end of the season.<\/p>\n \u201cThe team\u2019s in a great spot,\u201d Havili said. \u201cWith Scott Hansen coming in and strong talent coming through, it\u2019s very exciting.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of mana around that group and I\u2019m looking forward to seeing what they can do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cTo be able to live out my dream here for around 15 years and be part of this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[245980,696,694,8136,13381,803,56380,6284,49088,71,116641,78,1759,116640,111,139,69,6452,10538,213,199,61,1533,80],"class_list":["post-490650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-30test","tag-announced","tag-announces","tag-blacks","tag-captain","tag-continue","tag-crusaders","tag-david","tag-departure","tag-from","tag-havili","tag-in","tag-japan","tag-midfielder","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-opportunity","tag-play","tag-sports","tag-take","tag-to","tag-will","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490650","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=490650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}