Dave Hewett signs for Llanelli

Dave Hewett, now 33 years of age, has signed a two-year contract with the Welsh club Llanelli. He will move north after the end of the 2005 Super 12.

Hewett has 22 caps, his first against Ireland in 2001, his last against France in 2003. Born in Christchurch, he has over 50 caps for Canterbury and over 50 for the Crusaders.

He was 26 when he first played for Canterbury, 28 when he made his Super 12 debut against the Chiefs, and 30 when he made his All Black debut.

He weighs 120 kg and stands 1,81 m tall. He can play on either side of the scrum but has played mostly at loosehead. He says threat Gareth Jenkins, the Llanelli coach, wants him to play at tighthead.

Hewett and Llanelli are not strangers as he played there for six weeks in November and December 2004. But then he had not given up hope of playing for New Zealand again.

Hewett is the second All Black veteran to move in recent times, following Justin Marshall's signing for Leeds Tykes.

Agence France-Presse reports him as saying: "New Zealand has to be looking to the next stage of its life, from a rugby point of view

"Justin's obviously picked up on that, too. A lot of other players realise that while rugby in New Zealand is great, our careers are coming to the end of their paths here, in terms of our ages and the blooding of new players.

"So we need to look to new opportunities and the UK is a great place for that."

Llanelli have signed an agreement with the other three Welsh regional teams not to use more than two players ineligible to play for Wales. At present on their books are captain Simon Easterby (Ireland), prop Jon Thiel (Canada), No.8 Dan Hodges (USA) and the Tongan backs Aisea Havili and Salesi Finau.

There are 17 Llanelli players out of contract at the end of this season.