Former England forward to captain the Hurricanes in Super Rugby Pacific

The Hurricanes have confirmed the appointment of former England back-row forward Brad Shields as their captain for the 2024 Super Rugby Pacific season.

The Wellington-based franchise also announced that All Blacks duo Asafo Aumua (hooker) and Jordie Barrett (utility back) will be the side’s vice-captains for this season.

Shields is no stranger to the Hurricanes as he represented them in 103 games between 2012 and 2018 before heading overseas to pursue an international career with England, who he represented in nine Tests in 2018 and 2019.

Second stint as Hurricanes captain

This will be the 32-year-old’s second stint as Hurricanes skipper after he captained the side during at Super Rugby level in 2018 after regular skipper Dane Coles was sidelined for the season with an ACL injury.

Shields also captained the Hurricanes during their 31-31 draw with the British and Irish Lions in 2017 and he replaces fellow back-row Ardie Savea in the leadership role for 2024 as the All Blacks star will not be in action in Super Rugby Pacific this year after departing for Japan.

“I’m hugely excited and honoured to be leading the Hurricanes this season,” Shields told the Hurricanes’ official website. “I admit, after Clarky (Clark Laidlaw) told me I was really stoked, but I did feel a little apprehensive given I had been away for a few years and the quality of leadership we have at the Hurricanes.

“But at the end of the day, it’s a massive challenge and opportunity I’m excited for, and what makes it more exciting is there is a handful of guys here with so much experience who I know I will turn to for support. We’ll all work together with this one.”

Shields, who is Hurricane number 184, is keen to lead by his actions and hopes that will bring the best out of his team-mates.

“Actions. Always by actions is how I like to lead,” he explained. “I really want to challenge our environment because challenge always brings better performances.

“We’ve got a really young team this season so anywhere I can help and encourage and bring the best out of some of the young guys, and the players who have been here for a while, is what I aim for.

“The one thing that’s massive for us at the Hurricanes is connection within our community. Ultimately, we’ve got to play good rugby and perform really well if we want bums on seats, but it certainly means a lot to know we’ve got our community behind us, and we’ll do everything we can to give them a good service and make 2024 an exciting and enjoyable season to watch.”

Hurricanes head coach Clark Laidlaw revealed that deciding on a captain was not an easy decision as he has several experienced leaders in his squad.

However, since he returned to the Hurricanes, Shields’ attitude has caught the attention of Laidlaw and his fellow coaches which made the experienced loose forward the standout candidate to lead the side.

“The coaches and I do a lot of observing around leadership of the team, and it became reasonably apparent that we have several players that want to lead which is really exciting,” said Laidlaw.

“But with Brad, he leads really well every day. He’s a great role model around how we want to train; he’s competitive as hell; he’s won Super Rugby; he’s a test match player; he’s bigger and stronger than he’s been before; and he knows what it takes to win and to lead. So, at the end of the day, he became an obvious choice.

‘He wants to be better’

“One of the best things about Brad is that he wants to be better. That’s an important trait to have as a leader as it rubs off on everyone else. We as coaches want our captain to represent what we want the team to look like. And we felt with Brad’s experience and his maturity, he’s the right man to lead us forward for this season.”

Laidlaw echoed Shields’ sentiments on looking to his team-mates for support with the leadership duties.

“Brad will lead the side, but we do have a number of other players with Asafo and Jordie, who are going to be vice-captains of the team, and our leadership group will support Brad and help the coaches this season,” he added.

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