Most Safas and Aussies won’t have heard of him but any Kiwi Rugby fan worth their salt will know the name Johnny McNicholl.  The Canterbury outside back made a name for himself in last years ITM Cup scoring 10 tries, 3 more than any other player.  The 22-year old has plenty of pace and a mean side-step.  Sir John Kirwin even tried to snatch him up for the Blues which is a huge endorsement.  McNicholl decided to stick with the Crusaders, perhaps because he thought the Blues would be useless again this year; wrong so far.

A poor performance from Adam Whitelock last week has opened the door for the Canterbury flier who played mostly at full back for Canterbury last year.  It is early days and he will have to step up to Super Rugby but McNichol is a proven try scorer with 15 in 22 matches at state level.  This weekend, with Frank Halai, Charles Piutau, Lwazi Mvovo, JP Pietersen, Louis Ludik, Julian Savea, Hosea Gear, Kade Poki, Ben Smith, Rene Ranger and McNichol’s more illustrious teammate Israel Dagg to choose from, it’s tough finding space in the backline.  Nonetheless, McNicholl makes his debut this weekend on the wing for the 7-time champs, he costs just 6.5 million and could prove to be a bargain this season if he carries his provincial form on into Super Rubgy.  We’ll be monitoring his progress closely.

If you haven’t seen him he featured prominently in this Canterbury demolition job of Southland last year, scoring a hat-trick

Tags: Crusaders, Fantasy Tips, Johnny McNicholl, Super Rugby

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 7th, 2013 at 2:29 pm and is filed under Fantasy Rugby Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.