Auckland Rugby is excited to announce first five-eighths Dan Bowden will be joining the Auckland Mitre 10 Cup team for the 2017 season.

Bowden brings with him a wealth of experience from a professional career that has spanned 13 years at Mitre 10 Cup, Super Rugby and English Premiership levels.

The 31-year-old joins a promising squad that will assemble full time tomorrow.

“I’m very excited to be back home in Auckland, I was born and raised here, went to Auckland Grammar School and played a lot of representative rugby for Auckland growing up,” said Bowden.

The first five-eighths has returned home from playing offshore with his wife and two children and has been playing club rugby with Ponsonby over the past few months.

“I’m looking forward to being a part of this pretty exciting, young, talented squad we have. A lot of hard work is being put in and the players we have assembled in this side are fantastic.”

Bowden admits Auckland has a number of promising first five-eighths that will push him for a starting spot and he is looking forward to working alongside them throughout the season.

Auckland Mitre 10 Cup coach Nick White said Bowden will be a great asset to the Auckland team that kicks off the competition against Counties Manukau in just under a month.

“This year, for our group, it’s really important to have someone like Dan to get our game going and get us through this competition,” said White.

“His experience will be invaluable at first five-eighths and already we are seeing that come through in our trainings in terms of what he is offering our group.”

The full Auckland Mitre 10 Cup squad will be named early next month.