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Would Kiwi players help Aussie teams?

Would Beauden Barrett turn the Brumbies into a title contender?

Former Wallaby Mark Ella has suggested radical changes to Super Rugby that include allowing Australian teams to sign New Zealand players.

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“After the Waratahs’ loss to the Blues last Saturday I can’t see an Australian team beating a New Zealand team this season,” Ella said.

“If that happens, we would have gone two years without winning a single game against Kiwi opposition. That is totally unacceptable.

Ella raised some valid points with his suggestion that if the imbalance stretches too far, the competition suffers and as a result, the broadcast rights aren’t worth as much. His proposed solution is an open player market, with each player free to play for any team within the competition.

“If you can’t beat them, sign them.

“Imagine what a difference it would make if the Brumbies signed Beauden Barrett or if the Waratahs recruited Brodie Retallick.

“If players were free to play for any team in the competition, it would help to level out the playing field and make Super Rugby a much better competition.

“Right now it is just a competition between four strong Kiwi sides.”

Whilst his suggestion has some merit – the problem is and has always been rugby is about national interests, not about creating an even professional competition. Super Rugby is window dressed as a league but it is trying to be something it can never be – it’s stuck somewhere in between due to governing interests.

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It’s a counterfeit pro league when you compare to the likes of the NFL, NBA that have drafts and free agency to spread the talent around the competition to prevent imbalances of power. This was always going to happen if one country built their system to be stronger.

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The second issue would be headline All Blacks like Beauden Barrett and Brodie Retallick wouldn’t leave successful organisations to play for struggling Australian teams. The teams would need to stump up large multiples of their current salaries for them to even consider it, and they don’t have that kind of money.

A free market wouldn’t fix the imbalance now. You would have to wait years and years for the market to swing around. Australian sides would have to sign up and coming talent from New Zealand on overs – with no guarantees they will pan out as professional players without the same level of coaching.

“You would just need one or two key Kiwi players to make the Australian teams competitive again,” he said.

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Ella’s belief that just one or two players would shift the balance is deluded. Putting Beauden Barrett on the Brumbies wouldn’t turn the Brumbies into a powerhouse. The team is poor, the coaching is poor and the skill level across the board isn’t there. Barrett would improve the side, but it would be like using two buckets instead of one when trying to empty water from a sinking boat.

Australian teams would be better served signing established New Zealand coaches with credible track records. Dave Rennie, now at Glasgow Warriors or Chris Boyd who is set to join Northampton, would be quality additions that could provide more impact than one or two star players. These two have long records of proven success at Super Rugby level – but convincing them to cross the ditch is another problem all together.

They may not win titles but the players and style of rugby would improve. A long-term turnaround would require handing over control of recruitment and pathway programmes to the head coach, who can then put the right people in to oversee it. Because it’s not just the coaching that needs changing – one of the biggest issues in Australian rugby is the number of people at the top who have been proven incapable – coaches, recruitment managers, executives, boards – yet, for the most part, they still find employment within Australian rugby.

Without falling deeper into Aussie rugby problems, a good place to start would be bringing in an innovative, brilliant coaching mind with a proven track record. It might be surprising what kind of difference it makes.

In other news:

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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