Winston Aldworth: All Blacks coach right to call for changes to rules around players based overseas

All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson talks to media in Auckland on Tuesday. Photo / Photosport

OPINION

In his first public appearance as All Blacks coach, Scott Robertson managed to make a statement more interesting than pretty much all the utterances of any who preceded him in the role.

Speaking at New Zealand Rugby’s (NZR) headquarters in Parnell, Robertson said he wanted overseas-based players to be available to play for the All Blacks, warning New Zealand could slip behind other nations in the rapidly changing landscape of international rugby. It’s the first time an All Blacks coach has openly called for NZR’s ban on overseas-based players to be overturned.

The coach revealed he had talked to NZR’s executive and board about the issue, urging them to keep an open mind.

With 12 members of the All Blacks squad that silenced many doubters by making the Rugby World Cup final in October now playing offshore, Robertson knows he will be missing key talent when he selects his first side. But he’s looking further ahead.

If selecting from offshore is good enough for the best team in the world - the champion Springboks - then it should be good enough for us.

Robertson is not alone in acknowledging the reality of player movements in the modern game. Speaking to Japanese media in November, incumbent All Blacks captain Sam Cane said change could come to the national game.

“A lot of the Springboks have shown an ability to play [in Japan], go back to international rugby fairly quickly and continue to play their best,” Cane said when asked if it was time for a rule change.

Cane, of course, is playing in Japan with the blessing of NZR; he’s on what curiously gets called a “sabbatical”. A real sabbatical is a break from your regular work, when someone takes the opportunity to refresh by learning something new. If Cane had gone to Japan to spend six months learning how to make sushi or mastering origami, that would have been a sabbatical.

The word has been bastardised in New Zealand rugby circles to encompass the practice of young men playing a brutal sport under one contract being allowed to play more of the brutal sport with another contract on the side. It makes a simple contract hustle sound almost noble.

These sabbaticals have long been the norm for established All Blacks, and they make a mockery of the general ban on offshore players.

Those who argue for keeping the ban in place say it helps maintain the strength of our domestic game. The rule has helped keep our talent here since the arrival of the professional game in 1996, but it has outlived its relevance. Today, New Zealand is losing players who still have much more to give the national side.

Leicester Fainga’anuku is only 24, and Richie Mo’unga is in his prime at 29. With no rule change, both are lost to the black jersey.

It’s perverse to force players to stay with Super Rugby Pacific sides, then starve the competition of relevance with fans. In a cluttered leisure-time marketplace, New Zealand’s domestic rugby has been losing ground for years. With night matches in empty venues, the relevance of the domestic game on these shores has long faded.

By opening the doors to offshore players, we will get the best talent into the black jersey and more of our fabulous athletes will be able to make very good money playing for organisations that appreciate their fanbase.

Robertson’s statement puts him at loggerheads with a powerful figure at NZR, Chris Lendrum, the general manager of professional rugby and performance.

Lendrum last year said he wanted the ban to stay.

The man they call Razor will need to polish his argument and corral support if he is to have his way ahead of Lendrum.

Winston Aldworth is NZME’s Head of Sport and has been a journalist since 1999.