A property valuer signs for the Blues, and Brett Cameron gets a fifth year after two knees

Two signings this week tell two very different stories about how a professional rugby career happens. One is a 24-year-old who was valuing houses on the North Shore a year ago. The other is a 30-year-old who has spent most of two seasons rehabbing knees and has just been given a fifth year.

Rory Taylor: from the valuer's office to the Blues

North Harbour finished last in 2025. This year they finished fourth in the round robin and reached the quarterfinals, and a big part of that was a winger who had not been on anyone's radar. Rory Taylor, 24, a Rosmini College product and North Shore club player who came through the Blues Under-18s and then went off to work as a property valuer, started 11 games for Harbour this season and scored seven tries, including two in the quarterfinal loss to Taranaki. Across the competition he was second for clean breaks and metres and fourth for defenders beaten.

The Blues have signed him for two years under new head coach Jason Holland. "He's got real pace, he's a natural finisher," said the Blues' general manager of rugby, Murray Williams. Taylor's own reaction was simpler: "so excited for the opportunity."

Brett Cameron: a fifth year after two knees

Brett Cameron's 2026 lasted 23 minutes. The Hurricanes first five-eighth was stretchered off in the opening round against Moana Pasifika with a serious knee injury, having already missed most of 2025 with an ACL in the other knee. The Hurricanes went on to win the title without him, and this week they re-signed him for 2027, his fifth season with the club.

Cameron is 30. He won two Super Rugby titles and two Super Rugby Aotearoa titles with the Crusaders, played a season for the Kamaishi Seawaves in Japan, has one All Blacks cap from 2018, and since his Hurricanes debut against the Blues in March 2023 has played 25 games for 149 points. Coach Clark Laidlaw called his rehab "a genuine inspiration" and said the club was "just delighted to have him here." Cameron said he "couldn't be happier to be back at the Hurricanes," where he will compete with Ruben Love, Harry Godfrey and Callum Harkin for the 10 jersey.

Two players, two routes, one lesson worth passing on at training: the door does not close at 22, and it does not close after an injury either.