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'I'm not here to go and try make the All Blacks': Isaac Ross opens up on his last roll of the dice in New Zealand

(Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

As one door closes on Isaac Ross’s long-term stint in Japan, another has opened in the twilight of his career.

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Little over a month after speaking to RugbyPass of his quest to overturn a Top League ruling that effectively ruled him out of a contract on the basis that he isn’t Japanese, the former All Blacks lock has returned to New Zealand rugby for the first time in nearly a decade.

For the past nine years, the 35-year-old had plied his trade for the NTT Communications Shining Arcs, but was left without a club earlier this year due to his foreign status, despite the fact he has held a Japanese passport since 2017.

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Labelling the ruling as “discriminatory”, Ross was joined by former All Blacks Sevens representative Colin Bourke and ex-Australian sevens star Brackin Karauria-Henry – all of whom are Japanese citizens – in a bid to have the rule changed to allow them to stay in Japan.

Their bid fell flat last month, however, after the Japan Rugby Football Union confirmed there would be no change to the law for the upcoming Top League season.

That has led Ross back to New Zealand, where he last played for the Chiefs in 2011, as he answered an SOS call from former Crusaders teammate Joe Wheeler to help fix a shortage of locks at reigning Mitre 10 Cup champions Tasman.

“Tasman had a bit of a locking crisis. One of them made the All Blacks, Quinten Strange. Pari Pari Parkinson had ankle surgery and then Quinten rolled his ankle, but he was going to be away on All Blacks duty,” Ross told RugbyPass from Nelson.

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“There were a couple of other local guys at lock that got injured. They were down to four locks but were left with the young guys – apart from Alex Ainley, who’s 39 and still killing it – but they were basically short in the locking stocks.

“They were missing a little bit of experience with Quinten and Pari not in there, and it was just an opportunity to bring someone like myself in and take the pressure off a little bit.”

It only took a week for a deal to be struck between Ross and the Mako, with the nine-test veteran returning to New Zealand and undergoing the mandatory two-week quarantine period in time to make his Tasman debut in a 33-7 thumping of Bay of Plenty just under a fortnight ago.

The cameo appearance off the bench marked a new chapter in his storied career, one of which he was forced into by the “stubborn” attitude of Japanese officials.

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“It was always going to be a long shot with the decision in Japan, but I was willing to give it the last roll of the dice,” Ross said.

“I wasn’t expecting too much. The Japanese are pretty stubborn in their way. They don’t like to acknowledge they’ve made a mistake or something could have been done right.

“I didn’t really expect too much, but at the end of the day, that’s how it is and we’ve got to move on with life.

“One door closes and another one opens, and here’s a fantastic opportunity to come back to New Zealand and give it another shot.

“I’m not here to go and try make the All Blacks or get another Super Rugby contract, but it’s just nice to come back to New Zealand and give back a little bit as well.

“We’ve got a few young guys here trying to make their mark in the world on the rugby scene and I’ve sort of been there, done that, and it’s quite nice trying to have an influence on the next generation.”

It won’t just be in New Zealand where Ross, who made his first-class debut for Canterbury in 2006, will pass on the vast knowledge he has attained at provincial, Super Rugby, Top League and international level.

Following his one-season spell with Tasman, he will head to the United States to take up a player-coach role with the Austin Gilgronis in Major League Rugby.

Ross said he will utilise his time with the Mako to “pick the brains” co-head coaches Andrew Goodman and Clarke Dermody, two men he played against both in New Zealand and Japan, about the transition from playing into coaching.

For now, though, retaining the Mitre 10 Cup title remains firmly at the forefront of Ross’s mind as he and his teammates prepare to host a resurgent Southland side at Trafalgar Park on Sunday.

“As the years have gone on, they’ve made their own mark and become a bit of a formidable force in domestic rugby in New Zealand. It’s no longer just a team that would be quite cool to be part of, it’s now the pinnacle with them being the champions.

“It’s a cool opportunity for me to come in here and learn how they’ve gone from where they were to where they are today.”

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J
JW 49 minutes ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

I rated Lowe well enough to be an AB. Remember we were picking the likes of George Bridge above such players so theres no disputing a lot of bad decisions have been made by those last two coaches. Does a team like the ABs need a finicky winger who you have to adapt and change a lot of your style with to get benefit from? No, not really. But he still would have been a basic improvement on players like even Savea at the tail of his career, Bridge, and could even have converted into the answer of replacing Beauden at the back. Instead we persisted with NMS, Naholo, Havili, Reece, all players we would have cared even less about losing and all because Rieko had Lowe's number 11 jersey nailed down.


He was of course only 23 when he decided to leave, it was back in the beggining of the period they had started retaining players (from 2018 onwards I think, they came out saying theyre going to be more aggressive at some point). So he might, all of them, only just missed out.


The main point that Ed made is that situations like Lowe's, Aki's, JGP's, aren't going to happen in future. That's a bit of a "NZ" only problem, because those players need to reach such a high standard to be chosen by the All Blacks, were as a country like Ireland wants them a lot earlier like that. This is basically the 'ready in 3 years' concept Ireland relied on, versus the '5 years and they've left' concept' were that player is now ready to be chosen by the All Blacks (given a contract to play Super, ala SBW, and hopefully Manu).


The 'mercenary' thing that will take longer to expire, and which I was referring to, is the grandparents rule. The new kids coming through now aren't going to have as many gp born overseas, so the amount of players that can leave with a prospect of International rugby offer are going to drop dramatically at some point. All these kiwi fellas playing for a PI, is going to stop sadly.


The new era problem that will replace those old concerns is now French and Japanese clubs (doing the same as NRL teams have done for decades by) picking kids out of school. The problem here is not so much a national identity one, than it is a farm system where 9 in 10 players are left with nothing. A stunted education and no support in a foreign country (well they'll get kicked out of those countries were they don't in Australia).


It's the same sort of situation were NZ would be the big guy, but there weren't many downsides with it. The only one I can think was brought up but a poster on this site, I can't recall who it was, but he seemed to know a lot of kids coming from the Islands weren't really given the capability to fly back home during school xms holidays etc. That is probably something that should be fixed by the union. Otherwise getting someone like Fakatava over here for his last year of school definitely results in NZ being able to pick the cherries off the top but it also allows that player to develop and be able to represent Tonga and under age and possibly even later in his career. Where as a kid being taken from NZ is arguably going to be worse off in every respect other than perhaps money. Not going to develop as a person, not going to develop as a player as much, so I have a lotof sympathy for NZs case that I don't include them in that group but I certainly see where you're coming from and it encourages other countries to think they can do the same while not realising they're making a much worse experience/situation.

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