Thrush joins in on the exodus
Gloucester have gained the services of All Black lock Jeremy Thrush from the Hurricanes after the World Cup this year.
This comes with speculation looming around fellow Hurricane Ben Franks who is set to join London Irish.
The 29-year-old has 11 caps for the All Blacks and was part of the recent year-end touring squad.
Gloucester Director of Rugby, David Humphreys, was delighted to confirm his signing and commented:
"Signing a player of Jeremy's ability further highlights Gloucester's ambition to compete with the best clubs in Europe.
"He has been a stand out performer in Super Rugby over a number of seasons, and the experience he has gained being part of a successful All Blacks squad will be a key element in establishing Gloucester as one of the dominant forward packs in England.
"His recent man of the match performance against Scotland showed what Jeremy will bring to Gloucester in terms of his rugby ability but he will also add huge value to the squad, both on and off the field, through his leadership abilities.
"As we continue to build our squad for the 2015/16 season, our initial focus was the retention of key players who were out of contract.
"This has now been done and with Jeremy's announcement, we will continue to add strength in depth to our squad over the next few weeks.”
Gloucester Rugby CEO Stephen Vaughan commented: "The addition of a top quality All Black like Jeremy to our squad demonstrates our determination to keep building towards having a squad capable of consistently challenging for honours going forward.
"We began a rebuilding process this season by introducing a completely new coaching set up and a host of new players and we see this exciting announcement as further reinforcement of our total commitment to investing in the playing squad."
Thrush has also represented the Junior All Blacks, New Zealand Under-19 and New Zealand Secondary Schools teams.
He was a part of the victorious 2004 Under-19 World Championship team and was named the 2004 IRB World U19 Player of the Year.
Thrush last played for the All Blacks against Scotland in November last year where he scored a try and was made man-of-the-match in a 24-16 tightly contested victory.
All Black Jeremy Thrush signs for Gloucester Rugby!!! Gloucester Rugby are delighted to confirm the signing of … http://t.co/GDlPZybcfV
— Gloucester Rugby (@gloucesterrugby) January 13, 2015
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