[Source: 1News]

When Ryan Crotty finished up with the Crusaders in 2019 after a decade playing in the team, he genuinely thought that would be it in the red jersey.

But upon a return to New Zealand after four years in Japan, the 35-year-old feels he’s got plenty more to give, having now signed a one-year deal for the 2024 Super Rugby season after an NPC campaign with Canterbury.

“The catalyst was being back with Canterbury this year, connecting with the young guys coming through and seeing how special they were,” he said.

Mentorship is a key area the Crusaders centurion believes he can help in.

The Crusaders are heading into a new era without some of the games greats with coach Scott Robertson as well as stars such as Sam Whitelock, Richie Mo’unga and Leicester Fainga’anuku all departed.

“It’s definitely going to be different but the good thing about the Crusaders is that they always have succession plans”, said Crotty.

One of those plans is Rob Penney, who’ll replace Robertson as head coach. It was Penney that gave Crotty his first NPC contract for Canterbury back in 2008.

“The god-father’s back, isn’t he?,” said Crotty.

“He was massive back in the day bringing a lot of coaches through like Ray (Razor), and though he hasn’t been here for a while I think his fingerprints are all over the parts of success the Crusaders have had.”

The duo reconnected over the new contract negotiations of which Crotty was very honest when it came to his playing intentions.

“The first thing with coming back is I didn’t want to block the pathway of any young guys coming through,” he said.

“The opportunity kind of came about through Jack (Goodhue) leaving, and Braydon (Ennor) being injured and with the young guys being contracted already I wasn’t blocking any of those paths so that made me feel okay to come back and contribute.”

That and the fact he’s only the second oldest behind veteran halfback Willi Heinz.

“That was part of the contract negotiations – I was only coming back if he was the old-dog,” joked Crotty.

“But honestly, he’s inspired me in a way – seeing how he conducts himself and trains and the fact he’s still doing it gives me confidence there’s still a few years yet.”

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