Hurricanes flyhalf Aaron Cruden has decided to join his former mentor Dave Rennie at the Chiefs next season where he will fill the gap left by the departing Stephen Donald and Mike Delany.

Chiefs Chief Executive Gary Dawson confirmed that an anouncement will be made in the next few days, and although the young flyhalf has yet to put pen to paper there is a verbal understanding in place.

Dawson told the Waikatao Times: "We've just got some work around finalising the contract to get completed to make it 100 per cent. We're just working through that process at the moment."

The Chiefs had planned to announce the signing this weekend but Cruden jumped the gun by sending messages to his Hurricanes teammates to inform them of his decision.

The 22-year-old All Black flyhalf was also considering an offer to stay with the Hurricanes, but the offer of re-joining his former Manawatu and New Zealand Under-20 coach Rennie proved too good to pass up.

Cruden was not selected for the All Blacks Tri-Nations squad but he will get an opportunity to work with national assistant coach Wayne Smith who will be joining the Waikato franchise as an assistant to Rennie next season.

The Chiefs will be relieved to have secured a quality inside back to replace Donald who is off to Premiership side Bath at the end of the season, and they appear set to target a few more backline players as they seek to fill the gaps left by the exodus of All Blacks leaving the franchise.

Mils Muliaina, Sitiveni Sivivatu, Donald and Dwayne Sweeney will all be playing their rugby elsewhere next season and the team from Hamilton have made no secret of the fact that they are interested in the services of Crusaders star Sonny Bill Williams.