Folau to France will benefit Wallabies

Agree we should allow all our players to play overseas if they want to. The overseas competitions will soon put a cap on the numbers anyway.You could see the consequences in the lack of depth with the french. This will save the ARU top ups. Then just pick the best in the world. Lets get modern and get all this behind us.As for our pathways... what pathways? There is a pathway for GPS payers and thats it. The ARU seem to actively discourage public school boys. And what about the poor state of junior club rugby. some parents are having to fork out a few hundred dollars each year to play for each child and more for reps. Its not geared to joe blow. There is no pathway there either. We need a separate body running domestic rugby. The International ARU will never do any whats needed.

Just and example of a "silly money" offer.. I think it goes up to 18 mill with their new tv deal?

And the side that has been dominating has been the side picking combinations...... In any event, Origin is usually more about passion than silky skills and high scores,

err which national team is BILs? what is their IRB rankng? BTW what is the differnce between BILs and Barbarians ?

it would be very difficult for a club to pay taht kind of money , given the cap is 10 mio. else it will end up like the IPl player auction where some guys were bidded at exhorbitant prices thus leaving nothing in the purse to buy the other necessary reinforcements. this is not football after all ;)

Oddly enough there's a working example of how it might work successfully staring us in the face - unfortunately it's Rugby league and State of Origin (as in players from various clubs coming together for a week before each game, no extended camps).

100% with you on this Jak - Folau was always going to be a superstar in Union, his timing (arriving in a time of relative weakness in Australia) just makes it more obvious. He's answered pretty much all of his critics - can't pass; doesn't go looking for the ball; can't defend...- and in a very short time has drawn more attention to Australian Rugby than anyone since Eales kicked the penalty to win the Bledisoe. And now he's being talked about in terms of being offered the biggest contract ever... No wonder he's viewed with suspicion.

;) good point Jak, a previous post mentioned such names as: Wellington, Rommel, Hitler, Vo Nguyen Giap, and even the Romans

Let's give all the talk of sabbaticals and selection eligibility a rest..... If Folau went to France on a 3 million a year deal he would be headlines for a few weeks and then much like he was at GWS, become a non entity. Gits has apparently been playing the house down this year, how much have you read abut that? How many of Toulons' matches have you stayed up for? Are they even shown on Fox? When was the last time Digby was mentioned or seen in a highlights reel? After a year kids would not know any of them. If we opened it up for 50 cap players they would almost all go I'm sure. Dastardly French contract shennanigins aside, they may be available for selection, but not extended camps and you would be trying to spanner a half a side of stars into working combinations with players they have never played with and rarely seen. Championship winning sides are built on combinations, not cheque books.and combinations take time to develop, look at QC and the Reds when he doesn't have the right runners, it a shambles. It would lighten the ARU's payroll, but only until new players emerged and started sticking their hands up for more. Short term thinking at best.

Two tries on debut against the B&I Lions. Hardly minnows. The guys has played less than 2 seasons of rugby and already he's surpassing guys who have had a lifetime to perfect their game. Folau has proved his detractors wrong every time they come up with a reason why he's apparently no good. Can't wait to hear your next lame reason why he's no good.

"The French have a national anthem which is a stirring call to arms and to which the French responded in times of war" Maybe they need a new one then. It doesn't seem to help them on either field - sporting or battle.

Folau has played 6 tests against the top ranked teams NZ (3) , SA (2) , ENG (1) and has scored a grand total of ONE try against them. It is left to be seen this RC if he is the great finisher against SA & NZ or just a minnow basher ;)

People dont want to hear this and I doubt they will. Well said though.

You don't understand? What are the positives for the ARU against the negatives. Pretty straight forward. Negatives include losing control over player availability (as in, even if the player is picked for the wallabies, the club may not allow them to play or they might end up 'injured' during the international windows)' player fitness, amount of game time, no coordination between clubs and wallabies coaching staff and the negative effects of not being able to consistently have your best team on the park. Also this will devalue a major stream for the ARU by stripping the top wallabies out of super rugby and the disengagement of fans because they will no longer be able to see the top wallabies play domestically. The positives are... not sure. You don't understand why they don't pick from overseas, so you must have a list of positives as long as your arm. Please enlighten me of how the ARU will benefit. All the top countries pick domestically, except for SA which has only just changed over so we don't know the long term effect yet. Argentina is implementing a 'pick domestically' system to strengthen their domestic rugby. Most countries that have open slather selection polices have weak domestic comps, are at the whim for the NH clubs regarding player availability and have poor irb rankings. But lets go that way anyway?

great article, i think you've touched on some very interesting points in the fact that the ARU needs to do something to help lift the sports profile in oz. i went to the melbourne test and was really disappointed to see the stadium barely half full. i know it's a tough ask filling a stadium for a rugby game in the heartland of aerial ping pong, but it can be done. the one thing i don't agree with is the statement that izzy is "arguably" the best full back in the world. you'd have to be arguing pretty hard to convince me. don't get me wrong, he is an amazing player but he has a long way to go before he's the best in the business. undoubtedly a great finisher and relatively solid under the high ball he is not yet the full package of say a ben smith, isreal dagg or willie le roux. safely ahead of mike brown though. i don't buy into that rubbish. for me he lacks the massive punt to relieve pressure inside the 22 and the one on one defensive qualities that set the other three apart in my mind. and while he is quickly breaking try scoring records, i feel that he is a finisher and not a creator. most of the tries i have seen in his wallabies career have been from running good support lines and being there at the right moment to accept the pop pass and dive over the line. which is of course a big part of his job but i just don't think he has the elusiveness of the others to be a real attacking threat from anywhere on the park. if i were ewen, i would have him on the wing where his natural pace and tackle busting ability could be used in the way the all blacks use julian savea, and have a rock solid defender with a huge punt on him as custodian. he would still be able to run his support lines on attack and possibly open up inside channels for the centres buy drawing defenders out to him. just my opinion and i'm sure it wont be shared by everyone but i think it could make the wallabies back line an even more potent attacking threat

On another tack, ARU did not play fair against France. The French have a national anthem which is a stirring call to arms and to which the French responded in times of war and of crises - the fact that some AFL club have stolen the work of Berlioz so as to make it their club song is a disgrace. However, just as bad is that at all 3 matches the Le Marseillaise was sung by a screechy female who brought it no intensity whatsoever, whilst the Australian anthem was given a stirring rendition on all three occasions by a male singer. I have several versions of the Le Marseillaise sung by Robert Alagna and other great male singers on different occasions and each time the whole audience from the President down have stood up. I doubt they could or would have stood up when that high pitched screech was foisted on them. Shame on the ARU.

Good article, and well made point regarding attracting possible RL talent. Hadn't thought of it myself.

I don't understand why they don't just open it up generally to selection from abroad. The comment about needing the players around all year is short-sighted in my view. There is, as you mention, a huge player pool, they just don't have the opportunities that there are in other sports. If we open up selection to people who go overseas, there will be a very short-term downturn in our Super Rugby performances and then after a year or two it will be like it never happened. The positive is that there will be way more players to choose from and it will slash the ARU's salary bill. I just cannot understand what their big concern is and I am yet to see a serious argument as to why it is unrealistic. McKenzie talks about not expecting kids to stay up until all hours to watch Toulon, but many children of European immigrants (in addition to many others) stay up until all hours to watch football teams. If anything, it would mean that they would watch more rugby and get exposed to different styles from an earlier age. To be honest, I think the test series just gone shows that foreigners playing in France is a far greater problem for France than it is for us.

A lot of speculation going on here.