The 35-year-old’s performance earned rave reviews from journalists and fans alike.<\/p>\n
Planet Rugby gave McNicholl a nine out of 10 in its player ratings. “35 years young and has filled the void of Will Jordan superbly,” wrote Planet Rugby’s Jared Wright<\/a>.<\/p>\n “He scored three stunning tries today but was excellent in everything he did. Solid under the high ball, threatening with ball in hand, ran great support lines and even made a clutch cover tackle on the hour mark.<\/p>\n Win free tickets to watch Fiji v Wales in Cardiff this summer<\/a><\/p>\n “Form is temporary, class is permanent, and Johnny McNicholl is all class.”<\/p>\n Crusaders’ Johnny McNicholl scores a try during the Super Rugby Pacific Quarter final match between the Canterbury Crusaders and Blues at One New Zealand Stadium in Christchurch on June 6, 2026. (Photo by Sanka VIDANAGAMA \/ AFP via Getty Images)(Image: AFP or licensors)<\/p>\n McNicholl left the Scarlets in March 2024 to return home to New Zealand after making 130 appearances for the west Wales club including 57 tries.<\/p>\n He also won 10 caps for Wales under Wayne Pivac but did not make the same impact on the international scene as he did at club level.<\/p>\n If Wales were simply picking their best-qualified side, McNicholl would be difficult to overlook at full-back. The practicalities of geography, timing and age means his international career is almost certainly over.<\/p>\n But that hasn’t stopped the plaudits coming in for the Crusaders star on social media.<\/p>\n “What an awesome player he’s been this year proving age is just a number,” wrote one fan on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Johnny McNicholl needs to be back at 15 for @WelshRugbyUnion. Outstanding for the @crusadersurgby,” wrote another on X.<\/p>\n Follow all of our channels to ensure you stay up to date with the latest Welsh rugby news. Sign up to our free daily newsletter here<\/a> and our WhatsApp channel here<\/a> for all the breaking news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Johnny McNicholl reminded Welsh rugby exactly what it is missing with a sparkling display as the Crusaders stormed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[186107,5903,101,56,54,55,9015],"class_list":["post-624414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-johnny-mcnicholl","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wales-rugby-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0_GettyImages-2279455442.jpg\")
<\/p>\n