Legendary All Blacks outside back Jeff Wilson believes New Zealand were not at full strength in Saturday’s loss to South Africa and urged New Zealand Rugby (NZR) to do more to keep their best players in the country.
The All Blacks and Springboks were involved in an epic encounter at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on Saturday with the men in black dominating proceedings for long periods.
Scott Robertson‘s charges held a 27-17 lead deep into the second half and were well set to clinch the victory but lost their way in the game’s closing stages.
This, after replacement prop Ofa Tu’ungafase was yellow carded for a defensive indiscretion deep inside his own half and the Boks made full of use of their numerical advantage and two converted tries from Kwagga Smith and Grant Williams helped to seal a 31-27 win.
Wilson, who made 60 Test appearances for the All Blacks between 1993 and 2001, feels not enough is being done to keep New Zealand’s best players in their country.
After losing to the Springboks in last year’s Rugby World Cup final, players like Aaron Smith, Brodie Retallick, Richie Mo’unga and Shannon Frizell all took up contracts with Japanese clubs.
Only players based in New Zealand can play for the All Blacks
That meant they were ineligible to represent their country at Test level as NZR has a selection policy which only allows for local players to be picked for the All Blacks.
And Wilson believes not enough is being done to keep New Zealand’s best players on home soil particularly after the NZR received a NZ$200 million private equity investment from U.S. firm Silver Lake in 2022.
Speaking on The Breakdown, Wilson said: “That’s where our bench is. They’re playing overseas. That’s where they are.”
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He was then asked if he would play the likes of Smith, Retallick, Mo’unga and Frizell on the All Blacks’ bench and he replied: “That would be really handy. Or no, they could start.
“I’m not saying we bring them back. What I’m saying is we’ve just, apparently we’ve never been in a better financial position in our lives. Well, how about we pay the players that we need to be here to not just play for the All Blacks, to play Super Rugby, to be our superstars?
“Because they are superstars. They’re international-class players. Springboks don’t have that problem. They pick from all around the world. I’m not saying we do that. What I’m saying is we do what it takes to keep them here so we are actually at our very, very best, the best All Black team we could possibly have.
“Because if you imagine those players in the mix selection-wise and someone bumped into them at the airport, Aaron Smith and Brodie Retallick, they’ve got no problem.
“They’re good to go. If they got picked, they’d be good to go. There’d be no problem. So I’m not saying we pick them overseas.
‘We keep hearing we’re in this strong financial position’
“I’m not at that stage. What I am saying is the fact that why is it they’re not here, given the fact that we keep hearing we’re in this strong financial position, this money that’s been invested from Silverlake.
“Maybe there’s some conversations that need to happen in the back room to make us as good as we can be on the field.”
Wilson was asked by former All Blacks prop Angus Taʻavao if the aforementioned players left New Zealand because of money or if it was because they go straight from an arduous Super Rugby campaign into their commitments at Test level but Wilson said: “You can manage that. Money talks.”
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