Aaron Cruden flattened on debut by Benson Stanley

The weekend isn’t over yet, but over the past two days there’s been some top class rugby played both north and south of the equator. As I figure out what’s going to be featured on RD, here’s a great hit by Benson Stanley from Round 1 of the Super 14.

The Blues and the Hurricanes actually played the first match of the 2010 tournament, and within the first two minutes there was a great hit made by Conrad Smith, but we’ll show that another time.

Later in the match young Aaron Cruden made his Super 14 debut. You will have seen Cruden playing in the Air New Zealand Cup, and featured here on Rugbydump as there’s huge raps on the youngster who recovered from testicular cancer and made it back to the top.

He’s a tremendous talent, and as you can see in this clip, got talked up a helluva lot by the commentators, who pretty much put the kiss of death on him as his first touch of the ball was greeted by a big tackle from Benson Stanley.

Stanley has a bit of a reputation for making those type of hits, as you will have seen on here before. A member of a famous rugby playing family, Benson punches well above his weight, but has superb timing and technique when it comes to bringing down bigger players.

Unfortunately for Cruden, he’s not too big himself, so found out the hard way that he’s now playing with the big boys, and Super 14 rugby will be a fair challenge. Knowing what little I do about him though, he’ll bounce back strong and will be sure to make an impact with the ‘Canes this season.

Be sure to check out the related links below to see some of Stanley’s other big hits, as well as the feature on Cruden’s remarkable story. Highlights from the weekend’s matches will be posted when possible. For individual clips, please drop us a email.

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