NZR sabbaticals: GM of Professional Rugby doesn’t want All Blacks to move overseas to keep domestic competitions strong

New Zealand rugby fans will be the losers if All Blacks are allowed to be selected from overseas clubs, says New Zealand Rugby general manager of professional rugby and performance Chris Lendrum.

His comments come after All Blacks captain Sam Cane announced he was heading to Japan on a sabbatical, to take up a contract with Tokyo Sungoliath.

Lendrum told Newstalk ZB we’re unlikely to see a drastic uptick in the number of players taking sabbaticals - as the long service criteria are still fairly stringent.

“The option for Sam to take a planned sabbatical has always been a part of his contract.

“For him an opportunity has come up relatively recently ... Sam felt it was the right time for him to take that break. I guess reflecting on the years that he’s had, four years as pretty intense time as captain of the All Blacks and big campaigns, coming off the back of a World Cup the timing seems pretty logical to us and we’re really supportive.”

Lendrum said the sabbatical option is written into contracts for players who have given significant service to the game in New Zealand, but not everyone takes them.

“There’s long-service criteria. Not every long-serving player asks for it either, it doesn’t suit everybody.

“It’s not for everyone, but absolutely there are long-service criteria. The people that you’re seeing take these have all got upwards of 80 test caps, they’ve all played a long period of Super Rugby.”

He went on to say that NZR was delighted for 90-test All Black Dane Coles, who it was revealed is postponing his retirement and will also be heading to Japan for the upcoming season.

The sabbatical options were added with the aim of protecting New Zealand’s domestic game, as a strong Super Rugby competition is still a priority for NZR, Lendrum told Limm.

“The alternative is that if we don’t offer these, some players will choose to leave New Zealand earlier and we’ll lose them for the long term from the All Blacks and from Super Rugby.

“It’s not obviously perfect from a fan or team perspective but it is far and away a better option than the other option, which is they go for good,” Lendrum said.

Lendrum hopes there doesn’t come a time in which All Blacks can be selected while playing in overseas competitions as the fans will be the losers, and he sees high-performance benefits in keeping New Zealand players in domestic competitions.

“There’s real fan and competition benefits. We want Super Rugby Pacific to be the best competition in the world domestically, we think it can be.

“I don’t want us to get it to that point. I fully respect the achievement of the Springboks who have won the World Cup with players scattered across the world. There are different factors in play for the Springboks - how they play their rugby, how they make that work than there would be for us.”

He said you can’t easily compare the situations between New Zealand and South African rugby and that New Zealand having a strong domestic competition is what sets the country apart from others.

“It’s not simply an apples-with-apples comparison if you think about what they’ve done and about what we might do with similar eligibility criteria.

“You never say never and I’m not saying it’ll never get to that point one day, but the strength of New Zealand rugby domestically is part of our competitive advantage and we want to maintain that for as long as possible.”