Legendary All Blacks winger Sir John Kirwan has weighed in on New Zealand Rugby’s policy around selection of overseas-based players and revealed that there could be a change in how stars take sabbaticals.
Head coach Scott Robertson stated that he would be speaking to the governing body’s board following the conclusion of the international season as he is wary that the All Blacks are falling behind the likes of the Springboks.
Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus is not restricted to only selecting locally-based players like Robertson with many of South Africa’s top players plying their trade for clubs in Europe, Britain and Japan.
In fact, World Rugby Player of the Year nominee Cheslin Kolbe and winner Pieter-Steph du Toit play their club rugby in Japan for Suntory Sungoliath and Toyota Verblitz respectively.
All Blacks’ eligibility policy
While Robertson has urged the board to keep an ‘open mind’ on the topic, Kirwan believes that New Zealand Rugby cannot allow the All Blacks head coach to select overseas-based players and argued whether it would actually be beneficial, pointing to the Wallabies and their use of ‘Giteau Law’.
“There is absolutely no way that our country can afford to pick people from overseas, it’s an absolute joke and most people that want to be picked from overseas are those that have already left,” Kirwan said on the Breakdown show.
“This is a fragile, fragile world. Has it helped Australia? Australia did it and they’ve gone backwards. So for me, we can never ever compete with overseas money so what we need to do is try and find a solution to keep our best players.”
Scott Robertson issues warning to New Zealand Rugby over key policy and urges All Blacks to follow Springboks example
One tactic New Zealand Rugby has used in order to retain the services of star players is the use of financial sabbaticals which initially was introduced with Dan Carter.
In the years that have followed the likes of Ardie Savea, Brodie Retallick, Sam Cane, Beauden Barrett and Damian McKenzie have all been granted the opportunity to spend a season in Japan and miss a year of Super Rugby before returning to New Zealand and the All Blacks’ set-up.
Binning the sabbaticals
However, Kirwan revealed that the stints in Japan are set to come to an end because the All Blacks are not getting the desired results. There could well be some truth to the legendary All Black’s claims with Jordie Barrett heading to Ireland to link up with Leinster for a short-term stint instead of going to Japan like his brother did.
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“I like the financial sabbaticals they do in Japan but what the players need to realise is that if you go to Japan, you’ve got to win [with the All Blacks] so apparently the financial sabbaticals in Japan aren’t going to happen anymore because the players that have gone overseas have not won,” Kirwan revealed.
“So that’s probably out of the book but I am absolutely in favour of our best players being available for the Blues and playing in the Super competition and playing for the All Blacks, totally.”
New Zealand ended their year with a 29-11 victory over Italy, meaning that Robertson’s first international season came to a close with a win rate of just 71%, the worst by an All Blacks head coach after 14 games in the professional era.
READ MORE: How Scott Robertson stacks up to previous All Blacks bosses after 14 Tests
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