World Cup winner Aaron Cruden had a stellar career but it's far from his biggest life achievement
If you were to look at Aaron Cruden’s career on paper, it sounds like something you would wishfully think up with your mates over a few pints in the pub.
Fifty caps for the All Blacks at fly-half with a Rugby World Cup and five Rugby Championship winners’ medals, played against the British & Irish Lions, captain of the 2009 Junior World Cup-winning New Zealand team and named Junior World Player of the Year, two Super Rugby titles with Chiefs and over 100 games in the tournament, sabbaticals in Japan and France, and you’re a Barbarian.
It almost reads as too perfect to be true and it’s made even more unbelievable when you then realise the circumstances in which Cruden’s career began.
How Aaron Cruden defied the odds
“Rugby took off for me in high school, making age-grade teams and getting on the radar for the province. I was 18, leaving school thinking I was invincible and that the world was my oyster. Strolling out of the school gates for the last time with no cares in the world,” Cruden tells Rugby World.
“Then one day I was washing in the shower and felt a lump that I thought was a bit odd. I left it initially for a week or two but it hung around, so I made the decision to give my GP a call and get it checked out. Not long after that, I found out I was about to start my own journey with being diagnosed with testicular cancer.
“It was pretty crazy. I remember the very first appointment after being diagnosed. I was lucky my mum was with me because I went blank. It’s not words you expect to hear at that age and your mind immediately goes 100mph.”
Imagine that. You’re 18, fresh out of school with aspirations of making it as an All Black and suddenly you’re told you’ll have to undergo chemotherapy for testicular cancer.
At that age, you think nothing can bring you down, especially when you’re being touted as one of the most promising talents in the nation’s favourite sport. So for Cruden to be given such life-altering news could have knocked him sideways.
“You think you’re a superhero as an 18-year-old but it made me vulnerable so quickly,” Cruden says.
“Having to open up to my inner circle to let them know what was happening or even with the doctor visits, it was pretty invasive considering where the cancer was. I had to bare it all. At that age it still wasn’t easy. I was always questioning why it was happening to me.
“But I quickly learned that vulnerability is not a weakness, it’s a strength. I leant on my inner circle. My mum was a strong lady who raised me and my two brothers on her own, so she was a pillar of great strength.
“I also met my girlfriend, who is now my wife, just before it all happened. She was there alongside me and I probably realised she was the one after we got through it all.”
Long days sitting in hospitals undergoing chemotherapy treatment gave Cruden plenty of time to think and reflect.
Although only 19, Cruden suddenly became an adult, growing up in life quicker than those around him because of what he had to face. It gave plenty of time for perspective on life and what actually should be valued.
Rather than allow it to hold him back, Cruden saw his battle against testicular cancer become a reality check to enjoy what life can provide, which in his case was rugby.
Aaron Cruden of the All Blacks off loads the ball during the Test match between the New Zealand All Blacks and the British & Irish Lions at Eden Park
Breaking into the All Blacks
Less than a year after the all-clear, Cruden was not only back on a pitch but captaining New Zealand to the 2009 Junior World Cup, scoring 19 points in the final against England and subsequently being named Junior World Player of the Year.
Cruden then made his All Blacks Test debut against Ireland in 2010, only two years on from diagnosis.
A year on from that and there was a home World Cup in New Zealand with the All Blacks as clear favourites under mountains of pressure from the local public to end a 24-year wait for the trophy.
Cruden didn’t make the initial squad but injury to one of the team’s talismans, Dan Carter, saw the young player called up in a moment of need.
“I always wrote my hospital number on wrist tape for every game that I played, so that I could look down during games and remind myself that I had already been through s**t. It made me driven and motivated to try to achieve the goals I had set myself,” explains Cruden.
“So I actually felt zero pressure. Even when replacing Dan Carter, the man who was meant to be winning the World Cup for New Zealand and the best to do it. I wanted to be there in the first place and I had this learned attitude of just enjoying the journey. I had something to prove and nothing to lose.”
The rest is history. Cruden started the World Cup final against France only for injury to bring Stephen Donald into the fray. New Zealand scraped home 8-7 at Eden Park to get the monkey off their back. For Cruden, it was just another step in an incredible career.
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