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The ARU’s decision to open up Wallaby eligibility to European-based players is a slippery slope. A better alternative would be for SANZAR as a whole to open up eligibility within Super Rugby as it expands.
While the new seven-year and 60 caps criteria will not have a big effect initially, it is easy to see this changing in time. Already people (such as The Roar’s Andrew Logan) are calling for the threshold of time or games to be reduced.
While such a policy may benefit the Wallabies, it might also mark the beginning of the end for world-class provincial or club rugby in Australia.
Introducing policies that diminish the quality of Super Rugby players will decrease fan interest and thus the viability of the franchises. Eventually Super Rugby could fall over and if that happens there would be no choice but to open the flood gates.
Australian rugby would be left with a Wallabies side made up almost entirely of overseas-based players, and a fledgling national championship that would be a feeder competition for international clubs.
The only truly world-class rugby played in Australia every year would be half a dozen Wallabies games.
Some would say that this is inevitable but I don’t believe that to be true. At the very least this was not the time to start raising the white flag to European rugby.
With SANZAR on the verge of a big increase in broadcast revenue and international expansion, not all hope is lost of competing financially with European clubs over the long term.
The goal of SANZAR (and the players as well) should be to turn Super Rugby into a globally popular competition that blows the Top 14 and Aviva Premiership out of the water on and off the field. It’s much harder to do this when the ARU are effectively devaluing Super Rugby as the SARU have already done.
The unions need to relinquish some of their control over Super Rugby to attract more private investment and then use freed-up funds to better promote the competition and expand quicker into Asia and possibly America.
It’s a high-risk strategy, but it’s better than conceding supremacy to European club rugby.
Instead of allowing Test players to leave for clubs in Europe and remain eligible for Test selection, an alternative is to create more opportunity for experienced players to move around within Super Rugby.
It’d be better to see experienced Wallabies playing for Super Rugby teams in Japan than for clubs in France. Players would be able to experience living and playing in a new country without truly being lost to Australian rugby, as they would still be playing in our competition.
It should be the same policy throughout Super Rugby, with experienced Wallabies, Springboks, All Blacks and Pumas popping up in teams in every conference as marquee players. An added bonus is that there would be greater interest in foreign-based teams in each market.
In the short term the ARU and SANZAR should not be afraid to lose some players to Europe. But allowing them to remain eligible for Test teams will give these competitions even more glamour and prestige.
Wallabies, All Blacks and Springboks players should all be playing Super Rugby.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.