Former Manu Samoa No 10 and freelance rugby scribe Campbell Burnes argues that New Zealand Rugby should not surrender to despair and open the eligibility floodgates.
Don’t do it, New Zealand Rugby.
Don’t listen to the pundits who say we must move with the times and imitate soccer, of all games, and allow our All Blacks to be picked from anywhere on the globe.
For starters, it would kill off Super Rugby Pacific, already treading water to some extent, which has been lambasted and laughed at due to, amongst other things, rest protocols for All Blacks. What would those pundits say if a dozen leading current All Blacks fly the coop to chase the yen?
The two men around whom the current saga swirl are Richie Mo’unga and Shannon Frizell, both still young enough and good enough to make an impact for the All Blacks. As it stands, Frizell is off contract in Japan in June 2025 and Mo’unga in June 2026. They may return home after that. It looks like New Zealand Rugby is banking on it. But there is much to play out.
In the meantime, new All Blacks coach Scott Robertson starts his new job without his best No 10 and No 6. So be it. They knew what they were doing. No one held a gun to their heads and said ‘sign on the dotted line’ for Japan.
I hear a lot about player welfare these days. Whilst Japan’s season does not clash with All Blacks Test matches, the French Top 14, the English Premiership and the United Rugby Championship most certainly do. We have seen issues with the Springboks, where Bryan Habana was flying back to France during the bye weeks of the Rugby Championship, so Toulon could get its pound of flesh out of him. Is this what we want or need for our top All Blacks if they were given carte blanche to ply their trade in Europe?
Do you expect Mark Robinson to go cap in hand to Jacky Lorenzetti and plead with the Racing-92 boss to release Scott Barrett for a Test outside the prescribed international windows of July and November? We have already seen the shenanigans at play with Pasifika players in France and the UK around release.
As it stands, if say, a Wales international plies his trade in the English Premiership, then Warren Gatland cannot use that player outside the six weeks of the two windows plus the Six Nations. That is very much a case of the club tail wagging the international dog.
All Blacks fans would get very irate very quickly if they could not have access to their main men for all 14/15 Tests a season.
The success of Ireland and New Zealand in recent years has been due to the central contracting system. It allowed Johnny Sexton to last until he was 38. He was not overplayed. That’s why New Zealand’s top pros do not habitually play more than 30 games a year. It is why France and England have not won more than one Rugby World Cup between them, despite clear advantages in player numbers and resources.
It’s time to take a deep breath and not surrender to despair. Yes, we cannot match what Mo’unga et al are earning abroad. But hell, we are a small country battling a recession. Players come and players go, and sabbaticals are a sweetener, but they all know where they have to live and ply their trade if they want to be All Blacks.
Keep it that way.
Campbell Burnes
Rugby Writer
