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Michael Cheika has been quoted by Georgina Robinson in the Sydney Morning Herald as saying that “sabbaticals for players are inevitable… to ward off an exodus.”
But what does this mean?
Cheika cites the case of Nick Cummins who returns to the Western Force this season after a short stint with the Japanese Top League as a justification for some system of sabbaticals.
Cummins was on a contract with the ARU and was given special permission to play in Japan to build up his bank account which is being used to support members of his family in need.
He has come back to the Western Force where he is a great drawcard and an effective try-scorer and defender. He lost his place in the Wallabies while he was in Japan. And on the Wallabies tour of Europe at the end of last year, actually played well against them for the Barbarians.
Now he is back playing Super Rugby for the Western Force he is eligible to play for the Wallabies, providing his form is good enough or other players haven’t moved ahead of him in his absence.
Cheika argues that more “Cummins-style breaks are going to happen and we have to be more creative around our contracting.”
I think what he is saying here is that players who have established credible careers as Wallabies and want to top up their earnings towards the end of their careers should be allowed to ‘break’ their contracts for a season in Japan or Europe, provided they come back to Australia when they are needed, say in a Rugby World Cup year.
If this means they are not eligible to play for the Wallabies while they are on their sabbaticals, then I am in favour of this scheme.
The New Zealand Rugby Union does this. Players like Dan Carter (who broke his leg in France and couldn’t play out his contract) and Ma’a Nonu (who had a short stint in Japan) have been given sabbaticals.
But the understanding with them and all the other New Zealand players is that while they were overseas, they will not be selected to play for the All Blacks. They have to be in New Zealand to be selected for the All Blacks.
During the 2011 Rugby World Cup, when number 10s were going down like flies, there was no push from anyone involved with the All Blacks to bring back Nick Evans, the second best New Zealand fly half at the time, from England where he was playing club rugby.
This ban on overseas players applies in Australia, too. James O’Connor will be eligible for the Wallabies this season because he has come back from Europe and will turn out for the Reds. Matt Giteau, currently injured, but contracted playing in Europe through the Rugby World Cup 2015 tournament, is not eligible for the Wallabies.
I agree with this policy. Without it unscrupulous managers would be signing their players to overseas contracts well before their careers need to run out in Australia. Wayne Smith wrote an interesting article about this in The Australian, giving the example of a manager signing up a young prop for a French side so that he could pocket the windfall from the player’s increase salary. Imagine what these managers would do with well established Wallabies?
There are other considerations, too. I watch a lot of European rugby and it is clear that due to the weather (often cold and raining) and to the sheer number of matches played that the general standard is well below the pace and skills levels of Super Rugby.
It will be interesting, for instance, to see whether James O’Connor has come back a better player from his experience of playing in Europe. Somehow I don’t think so.
This is certainly the experience of the South African players who are playing in Europe. The exception, perhaps, is Bryan Habana. But the others have not reached the same standards during their overseas experience that they reached while playing Super Rugby.
There has been a tendency, too, by the Springboks selectors to prefer older Springboks playing overseas to up-and-coming youngsters playing for South African Super Rugby franchises. Young players need to be exposed to Test when they are confident and growing as players and people. The South African model works against this.
There is also the consideration that the players developed by the SANZAR countries should be encouraged to play Super Rugby to ensure that this tournament retains its credibility as the best club/franchise/provincial tournament in world rugby.
To sum up, the ARU look to giving short-term overseas sabbaticals to a handful of star players to extend their careers back here in Australia after their stint overseas. But any Australian playing outside the Super Rugby tournament should be considered ineligible for play for the Wallabies.
This proviso, though, should be widened slightly to allow for Australian players to play for other Super Rugby franchises (say the Japanese franchise) and still be considered for the Wallabies.
Several star players have signaled their intention to play overseas after the 2015 Rugby World Cup tournament. The list includes Adam Ashley-Cooper, James Horwill, Will Genia, Nic White and Sekope Kepu.
Only Kepu, in my opinion, is a real loss to the Wallabies in 2016.
And of the current list of overseas players, only Kane Douglas would automatically be grabbed by the Wallabies as a starting player.
I know that under this sort of sabbatical system the Wallabies will lose Israel Folau. But he is like Sonny Bill Williams. He is in the position of being able to set up contracts that can’t be matched by the ARU. He will follow the money.
Good for him. Australian rugby has just got to live with this, just as the New Zealand rugby has learnt to live with and without SBW.
But with the system currently in place, players like Sean McMahon, Rob Horne and Matt Hodgson (if the Force, as they should, want to renew his contract) have re-committed to Australian rugby.
They have a passion to play for the Wallabies. This sort of passion must be encouraged by the ARU.
The bottom line in all of this is that if players don’t want to play for the Wallabies, then let them go
As usual, there is some confusion on where the ARU stands on these matters. Sam Bruce for ESPN Rugby has a recent article in which he recounts how he asked the ARU some questions about the departure of White (who is aged 24 and in his prime) and Kepu (aged 28 and also in his prime as a prop).
Were these players offered a sabbatical option? Is there a limit to the number of sabbaticals the ARU will offer?
One final point. When players leave a franchise, they open up a spot for someone else with the hunger to succeed that the leaving player might have lost. We’ve seen this with the New Zealand franchises every year. Are we seeing this in Australia, too?
The best story of last weekend’s friendlies by the Super Rugby sides comes out of the Waratahs franchise. A winger from last season’s title-winning side Alofa Alofa has headed overseas. To take his place, Michael Cheika recruited the former Wests Tigers rugby league winger Taqele Naiyaravoro, a Lomu-like giant of 195cm and 120kg.
Naiyaravoro scored two tries, threw the final pass for two more tries and generally wrecked havoc whenever he got hold of the ball. If Alofa Alofa was still on the Waratahs books, though…