TRANSFER | Dan Carter's next club confirmed

"I want to use my experience to help the Blues," he said.

"I've been approached a few times over the years when Ted [Sir Graham Henry] was coaching, JK [Sir John Kirwan] as well. I didn't obviously at the time. I didn't think about it.

"When the Japanese season was cancelled I just wanted to spend time with my family. It wasn't until Leon called saying Stevie [Perofeta] had been ruled out for the season, that's when I thought about it. He's a pretty convincing guy."

"It took a while to put it [the jersey] on but once I got out there...it wasn't really a team I thought I would be playing for but it's an opportunity to come to training in the city my family is."

"We've been starved of sport and rugby. As a player we feel the same. With it being around the corner, it's an exciting time. Super Rugby Aotearoa first came around I didn't really think about playing in it... It's more about getting my body up to speed to just be in contention to be selected. A great opportunity to help some of the young guys," Carter added.

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England, who fast-tracked Burgess into their World Cup squad in defiance of logic, Bath and the player himself each shoulder varying degrees of blame for arguably the greatest cross-code flop in history. We're not saying he was an awful player, but the whole thing was a complete disaster.

He became the first player to represent Great Britain in Rugby League and England in Union. His move to union was part funded by the RFU, who were embarking on a strategy of converting some of leagues best talent. However, Mather struggled to make an impact with Sale and moved back to Castleford in 2000. In spite of his poor form with Sale, Clive Woodward gave Mather his debut against Wales in the famous Grand Slam decider in 1999. However, Mather never played for England again after Wales won the game 32-31, following Scott Gibbs’ superb try.

Following his cross-code switch, the Volcano’ stormed onto the scene for Gloucester, doing something ridiculous like scoring five tries on his debut against Leeds, before qualifying for England on residency grounds. International honours followed, with Vainikolo making his England debut against Wales in 2008. However, he failed to bring his try-scoring form to the international scene and was quickly dropped from Martin Johnston’s squad after winning five caps.

Tomkins began his League career with Wigan in 2005 and outside of a short stint with the Widnes Vikings in 2007, played with the Warriors until moving to Saracens in 2011. While Tomkins initially struggled to adapt to union, but his form during the beginning of the 2013/14 season saw him earn an England cap against Australia in November 2013. Although he went on to make two further international appearances, he looked completely out of his depth and returned to league soon after.