NZ Rugby needs to open its All Blacks selection borders before it’s too late, insist SENZ’s Scotty Stevenson and Israel Dagg.
The team’s recent struggles have seen the chorus in favour of NZR reversing its longstanding policy which prohibits non-NZ based players representing the All Blacks grow rapidly to a crescendo.
To many, recruiting the likes of Japan-based players Richie Mo’unga, Brodie Retallick and Shannon Frizell would provide a quick fix for some of the All Blacks’ issues under new coach Scott Robertson.
The counter to that stance is that it could potentially open the floodgates for our most talented players to ply their trade abroad, in turn diluting the product of rugby in Aotearoa.
But Israel Dagg says NZR needs to put its ego to the side, concede that Super Rugby is no longer the sport’s premiere franchise competition and allow players to take advantage of those lucrative off-shore contracts.
The former All Black says – judging by his own experiences as a courted player – those deals were once relatively on par with what they could earn in New Zealand. But those days are now long gone and the extra zeroes will only become more difficult for players to pass up.
“I got offered a contract to go to Leinster,” Dagg revealed on SENZ’s Scotty & Izzy.
“I was pretty close to gone, but the reality is it was same-same in terms of money. Basically, you’re making that decision to go and test yourself in another arena, or you’re going to live a lifestyle that you haven’t lived and maybe experience something different.
“Now that’s totally changed. The money has gone three or four times more than New Zealand can compete with, and we’re not going to be able to compete with the money that is on offer.
“From the numbers I’m hearing, its astronomical amounts of money that is being thrown at these players out there, so you’re never going to be able to compete.”
Both Australia and South Africa have changed their approach to let overseas-based players play for the Wallabies and Springboks respectively.
Dagg suggests a criteria could be enacted in a similar fashion to Australian rugby’s Giteau Law, which dictates off-shore players must have 30 Test caps or five seasons of Super Rugby under their belt to be eligible for selection. It also enforces a limit of three such players per series or tournament.
Either way, following in those footsteps seems inevitable, he adds.
“South Africa was the biggest loss in history in terms of our development down under. I can’t see anyone else filling that gap.
“The reality is we aren’t the benchmark-setters now and these players are going to shoot off-shore.
“It has to happen.”
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