The Japanese hooker has signed on for a third season at the struggling Rebels.
Japanese international hooker Shota Horie has agreed to a new one-year deal with the Melbourne Rebels, the club announced on Wednesday.
The 28-year-old joined the Rebels in 2013 and has extended his contract to take him into his third season of Super Rugby.
Horie has 32 caps and six tries for Japan, and is aiming to play in his second Rugby World Cup in 2015.
He said he was excited to stay in Melbourne for a third season and aimed to help the struggling Rebels who currently sit bottom of the Super Rugby Australian Conference.
“I’m very happy to stay here in Melbourne,” Horie said.
“One month ago, we had a baby (Yoshino) and I had to decide whether to stay in Melbourne for another year or go back to Japan. My wife Yukari told me that if I want to stay as a Rebel, we can do that; the baby will be fine here.
“Super Rugby is a very difficult competition, and this year we haven’t won enough games. I want to win more Super Rugby games at the Rebels, and I want more Super Rugby game time.”
Rebels head coach Tony McGahan said he was unsure of Horie’s qualities before seeing him first-hand during pre-season.
“I didn’t really know a lot about Shota coming into the program,” McGahan said. “He started pre-season late after returning from Japan, and with him having limited playing time last season my knowledge wasn’t great in regards to him.
“However we were really impressed with his condition when he came back from Japan in February; he was fit, keen and eager, and a really good student of the game.
“Shota continued to work hard while adjusting to a new program which had changed a fair bit from the previous year, and then when the opportunity presented itself he was good enough to take it and actually had a really big influence on games; that’s been fantastic from our perspective.”
The Rebels are out of contention for the Super Rugby playoffs.
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