{"id":622494,"date":"2026-10-06T17:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T17:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/622494\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T17:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T17:56:13","slug":"ardie-savea-ready-for-the-last-dance-as-all-blacks-star-makes-shock-revelation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/622494\/","title":{"rendered":"Ardie Savea ‘ready for the last dance’ as All Blacks star makes shock revelation"},"content":{"rendered":"

All Blacks star Ardie Savea has revealed that the Blues<\/a> were the \u201conly\u201d side to offer him a contract after his move to the Auckland-based franchise was confirmed last week.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old needed to find a new team after being liquidated at the conclusion of the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific campaign.<\/p>\n

Savea<\/a> had signed a three-year deal with the side and New Zealand Rugby, which took him to the end of the 2027 Rugby World Cup, but his stint ended one year early due to Moana\u2019s financial problems.<\/p>\n

The loose forward could have gone abroad but, with the global tournament on the horizon, moving overseas would have ruled him out of Test contention.<\/p>\n

Five options for Savea<\/p>\n

That realistically gave Savea five options but, of those New Zealand Super Rugby franchises, just one of them moved in for him, according to the All Blacks<\/a> captain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was at the \u2018Canes for 11 or 12 years, so I honour the franchise and I love my brothers there and what they\u2019re doing, and then obviously went to Moana,\u201d he told The Morning Shift<\/a> podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod\u2019s taken me back to the 09 with the Blues,<\/a> so I\u2019m ready for the last dance.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly the Blues came to the table, so I\u2019m just grateful, very, very grateful.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to say a massive shoutout to the Blues; they showed love from the get-go as soon as the news on Moana [happened], they\u2019ve just been showing love and have been the only ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

All Blacks skipper Ardie Savea\u2019s long-awaited move to the Blues confirmed<\/a><\/p>\n

Savea claimed that Blues CEO Karl Budge, who was appointed in October last year, was a big reason why he ended up at the Eden Park-based outfit.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Budge) was in Tokyo when I was in Kobe. He came down to Kobe and we chatted. We sat down for like five hours at a cafe talking about creative content, new media, new ways to promote the game which was up my alley,\u201d the back-rower said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the get-go I loved him as a CEO and his vision, but also as a person, he just seemed like one of us. When you have that kind of interaction from the get-go, you feel really valued and whatnot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Highlight of my career so far\u2019<\/p>\n

Savea only played 12 times for Moana, having spent 2026 on a sabbatical in Japan, but the All Blacks skipper revealed why it was the most enjoyable time in his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone was to ask me what the highlight of my career is so far, it would be Moana, 100%,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople ask why and I say: \u2018We always started with God and we finished with him\u2019, and I\u2019ve never been a part of a team that actually put him at the forefront of everything. Just being authentically yourself, Pacific, which was awesome.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving those boys there, they taught me a lot. Even though they think I did a lot, I learnt so much from them and I feel like I am the player I am today because of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really grateful for that chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Dave Rennie\u2019s silver lining verdict on Ardie Savea\u2019s injury: \u2018We will miss him\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Blacks star Ardie Savea has revealed that the Blues were the \u201conly\u201d side to offer him a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[8367,33339,1463,111,43,139,69,213,82286],"class_list":["post-622494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ardie-savea","tag-blues","tag-home-page","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports","tag-super-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622494","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=622494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}