We're excited to announce our course dates and costs for 2025:
Hear from Harvard freshmen Eamonn Lay and Tinaye Ngorima who left the Boston based university in their summer break to come to Christchurch and develop at the Crusaders International Academy
Henry Whittaker is a prop from Guernsey in the Channel Islands who spent 18 weeks at the Crusaders International Academy in 2024. Henry's main learnings from the academy were around the off-field side of the game, and the importance of culture.
Attached is our weekly training schedule which gives you good understanding of how the payers week will run. There is plenty of learnings during our week as we cover both sides of the ball (Attack & Defence), individual positional demands, gym requirements, educational seminars and so much more. In addition to the CIA sessions, you will attend club trainings 2x per week and play club games on Saturday afternoon’s. Plus you have the opportunity to watch the Crusaders daily trainings, which adds huge value to see how professionals prepare each week. We have players attending from all over the world, so the comradery developed between the players is special and is an important part of attending the CIA.
We have weekly Educational sessions which are a revolving 5-week cycle featuring, Mental Skills, Nutrition, Culture, Personal Development & Rugby IQ.
Players are placed with our local Homestay families. The homestay family will provide breakfast and an evening meal 7-days per week. Players need to source their own daily lunch. Connection is an important part of being at the Crusaders, so players and players' family are introduced to their Homestay family closer to departure time. The Homestay cost is $470NZD per week.
A link will be provided for your visa status & travel requirements
Our Physio at the Crusaders International Academy will treat our players for daily strains and/or tightness at no cost. However we advise players to source their own travel & health insurance.
Players need to complete an international players release form, which must be sent to your national rugby union. Your National Rugby Union will complete the transfer and will send this to New Zealand Rugby. This enables players to play club rugby while in New Zealand. We will reverse this process once they have played their last game in New Zealand.
Packing wise, training, casual clothing, and warm layers will be needed as our International Academy players will be coming to New Zealand during the Southern Hemisphere Winter
A google link will be sent to all International Academy attendees to complete to ensure we have all our athletes' relevant information.
Image Gallery
