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The All Blacks don't need overseas-based players
By Ben Smith
Time and time again players rise through the New Zealand system out of nowhere and explode onto the world stage.
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This time 12 months ago, Wallace Sititi wasn’t on the radar. The Chiefs had smartly signed the blockbusting No 8 away from the Blues, but he had yet to make an appearance in Super Rugby Pacific.
It took until halfway through the 2024 season for Sititi to get a start in the Chiefs crowded back row with All Blacks Samipeni Finau and Luke Jacobson starting.
Since then, Sititi’s life as a rugby player has changed forever in the space of eight months. The 22-year-old was the All Blacks best forward this season and took home World Rugby’s Breakthrough Player of the Year award.
At the beginning of Scott Robertson’s tenure, blindside flanker was one of the biggest positional uncertainties for the All Blacks with Shannon Frizell departing.
It seemed that New Zealand could not find a No 6 after Jerome Kaino until Frizell elevated his game in 2022 and secured the role.
Now, less than year since his departure that hole has been filled by a dynamic ball-carrying force who has been touted as a long-term All Blacks captain. Sititi might be a No 8 long-term, but the system provided an answer that no one saw coming.
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Halfback was another pressing need after all-time great Aaron Smith departed for Toyota. After starting the season with TJ Perenara and Finlay Christie, the position was rejuvenated with the younger pair Cortez Ratima and Cam Roigard.
The halfback position is much more certain at the end of 2024 than it was at the start. Roigard and his running game offers something different and Ratima is a strong No 9 with a clean pass. They are clearly the future heading into 2027.
The locks were another key area that needed answers this year after legendary pair Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock retired from international play.
The answers were already there, with Scott Barrett already a regular starter in the second row with both aforementioned greats, while Patrick Tuipulotu was expected to assume a greater role within the team.
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The player that stood out above all in the position group was Tupou Vaa’i, who through the middle of the year was exceptional. He called the All Blacks lineout plays, operating at near 90 per cent, while having a rounded defensive game with the ability to get over the ball at rucks and defend strongly in close.
After the Springboks series, assistant coach Jason Ryan was prepared to say he was up there as one of the best in the world. Josh Lord and Sam Darry, a debutant this year, aren’t at that level but with time on their side add more depth.
The All Blacks didn’t need to bend the rules for Frizell, as they don’t need to for Richie Mo’unga. The position is not even one of need for the All Blacks.
The third-most capped All Black of all-time in Beauden Barrett is contracted until 2027. In his starts at No 10 in the back end of the season he was in vintage touch.
Against the Wallabies in Wellington at his favoured Cake Tin, he looked good and his attacking kicking game brought another dimension. His best showing was against Italy, who aren’t the doormats they once were. Barrett laid on two try assists and bagged one for himself.
This is a two-time World Rugby Player of the Year who still can play at this level at a world-class standard.
The other No 10 is Damian McKenzie, named in the World Rugby dream 15 this season. There is not a 10 on this planet who has produced more attacking play in Test rugby this season.
He was the All Blacks only spark against England in July, playing error-free rugby while creating New Zealand’s only line breaks and try scoring opportunities.
There is no player with more line break assists in 2024 for club and country as McKenzie, who has 60 (Opta).
His goal kicking has won multiple Tests for the All Blacks this year, despite two late misses in Cape Town against the Springboks. The first England Test in Dunedin, the Sydney Test against the Wallabies and the England Test at Twickenham. He was man-of-the-match against Ireland.
The position is as strong as it has ever been with with two of the best in the world. There is no need to lust after Mo’unga.
There seems to be a rose-tinted view of Mo’unga’s career as an international flyhalf. This was a guy who struggled for years to be consistent until Joe Schmidt arrived as an assistant coach. Until Schmidt arrived, he carved up the lightweights of Test rugby and came up short against the bigger teams.
Mo’unga’s best play in the black jersey came through the back half of 2022 and into 2023 where he became an accomplished international player. It ended with a World Cup final loss and Mo’unga decided to move on to the next chapter. If he wants to come back, great, but the All Blacks do not need him next year or the one after with two world class 10s available.
Since the Breakthrough Player award began in 2015, New Zealand has produced five out of the eight winners. Sititi joins Nehe Milner-Skudder, Rieko Ioane, Will Jordan and Mark Tele’a as All Blacks to have been crowned.
The conveyor belt is still producing some of the best talents the game has seen, there is no reason to change up the eligibility rules for one player.
Go behind the scenes of both camps during the British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa in 2021. Binge watch exclusively on RugbyPass TV now
The manner of all these comments is that it doesn’t matter who plays No10 for the All Blacks, apparently they are all rubbish!
Seriously, people need to get a grip and stop obsessing over every tiny error made from an overscrutinised position. DMac was good this year for the most part, as was Beauden Barrett. Mo’unga was good last year and would be an asset in the group if he did come back. I don’t see it as an area of concern.
The main concern in 2025 is finding another world class lock and loose forward, followed by some scrutiny over the midfield combination in my view.
You have to forgive me, I only really enjoyed watching rugby in the past so I'm very surprised to find the last World Cup when South Africa had a domestic only policy was in 2007. Why is there current model only being championed now?
2023 18 foreign players
2019 9 foreign players
2015 12 foreign players
2011 10 foreign players
What's going on, Rassies visionary status is bogus? WC year was different. I can see they opened up eligibility fully only in 2019? Surprised I couldn't find much fan content on about it, not in english?
Sorry, Mo'unga decided to move to Japan before the 2022 started, before he became a locked in All Black. It was one of the key reasons why he was finally able to release the pressure on himself and play his own game at the test level (and therefor becoming a star of course).
That correct, no, we were lucky he was least needed overseas star giving Dmacs form and fitness. The same could not be considered with all the other names. Brodie, Frizell, Smith, Boshier wouldn't all have greatly increased NZ chances of winning if they had been included in some capacity.
It is a BIG statement to suggest that Razor would have the ability to rotate those names in the teams when he couldn't even do this current sized group very well (hello Sam Darry's 25 minutes in 3 games off the bench).
That's right, Ben. Keep on beating the drum. We really don't want the All Blacks to be able to spread the net further to increase their player pool, nor do we want them to open more spots for them in the SR competition for young stars to come through. Instead, please keep on bankrupting NZ ruby by paying exorbitant salaries to aging stars in order to keep them at home. Until they are too old to earn a decent salary overseas, and has to go work as a barman in a backwater town in NZ. I mean, NZ rugby players are so good that France, England, Japan etc. will buy them all up and you will only have callow youths playing at home. They don't have salary caps or limits on overseas players at all... lol. I mean, the policy of only picking home based players has worked so well in soccer for teams like Brazil, Argentina, Portugal.. and it is working very well for SA in rugby...not.
That's not on Ben, that's on NZR and shouldn't have been done regardless of the current eligibility (assuming Beauden Barrett's are on more than 400k a year).
Oh, you are just a bitter South African hahaha OK!
Tawkin outta ya back door aren't ya Benny? 🤣
There are plenty of young guys coming thru in the 10 position. Perofeta, Jacomb, Millar, Cameron, Love, Simpson, Trask...even Sullivan.
Razor will never know if any of them are good until he tries them. The NZXV team showed a lot of promise and beat Georgia...No mean feat.
Going backwards is not the way forward.
I think a completely new centre paring is more crucial at the moment as the ball seems to stop with these guys. JB is not a 12 but he is a very good rugby player so just keeps getting picked there. Guys like Aumua, Lam, Proctor, Higgins, Poihipi. Tupaea, are quality and should be tried. Razor is too conservative so far.
Need the Giteau rule. ABs need best available players...times have a changed. Pointless discussing specific players or those coming through. We need to give our best chance to earn later in their career and still wear the fern
If the ABs had access to all their players overseas, they could field 3 or 4 top international teams. That would be a good thing.
Not for World Rugby.
I’d be interested to see what the second or third teams made up of NZ players playing overseas would look like.
I assume you’re including players who are playing for other countries (like Ireland). Because they wouldn’t be eligible to play for NZ for three years and unless they stopped playing for their adoptive countries.
So that leaves you with NZers playing for club teams abroad.
I can so far only think of one player. 10. Richie Mounga.
I think with BB ikicking for posts % was never quite where he would have wanted and possibly gotten worse before Richie got the 10 jersey
Lots of things got worse when Richie got the 10 jersey.
I think that any NZ player who has been on a full SR contract with a NZ franchise for 7 seasons or more (regardless of All Black caps) has demonstrated great loyalty to NZR and therefore should be free to make the big dollars overseas (it is a profession with a limited shelf life) and be eligible for All Black selection.
This policy encourages NZ players to play in Super Rugby until age 28-29 when their market value is at its highest and very likely to leave NZ anyway as NZR can no longer afford them (ie Richie Mo'unga, Shannon Frizell).
Frizell left due to miscommunication on NZR's part. He was under the impression they didn't want him around anymore. Was literally in an interview earlier this year, in which a NZR representative was negotiating his return to NZ.
Thats the only 2 tho. And neither was a superstar..... Mounga has never claimed the 10 and Frizell was a hit and miss many times. Sititi is already a better 6 than him. Most 28-29yo Test players are reaching their peak and definately hanging around for more ABs jumpers.
Agh the one eyed journalist at last written editorial that is not biased, I guess that is difficult to do when you are discussing the AB’s anyway!🤡
Yes mate, you do. Razor knows it.
Such a short sighted view. What happens next year when sititi gets signed by a top 14 club? Or DMAC goes to Japan? You can't keep chopping and changing your team and hope they perform come RWC.
Allowing international players selection:
1) actually increases opportunities to develop and identify emerging talent by forcing clubs to find depth.
2)It helps local clubs generate more profit as a result of having more affordable contracts and taking a gamble on emerging players.
3)It helps national teams to generate more profit by having players costs subsidised.
4)It helps players to make a decent earning and not have to decide about national loyalty or a better life for their family.
Every country that allows for international players selection has only benefitted and increased their depth SA, Fiji, Tonga, Argentina, Italy. The list goes on. What is the drawback?
He's simply wrong. There would have been many times this year were it would have been beneficial to call in one of those overseas players.
Sadly with your view though all four of those points hurt the bottom line more than they benefit.
Argentina and SA are still in the window having benefited from a domestic only selection policy. You're not able to include them yet alone with teams like the Pacific Island nations.
U need a strong competition to test blood upcoming players and quality games that people want to watch and the SA comparisons don’t really work because their clubs play in a competition filled with quality players from different countries to test ur newbies against and attract fans maybe Giteau type law would work but def not free for all
Geography. It’s mostly drawback. NZ comps would get mined of top talent, so less people are interested so less people want to play so on and so forth.
The drawback is the value of the jersey. It only gets cheaper. Very shortly the springbok 23 of the day will only be foreign-based players. I would love to hear the arguments for the locals not considered.
You really want an All Black jersey to be as cheap as a springboks jersey hey. To this day, there are people that don't have a price. Don't expect everyone to sell their gift to the highest bidder. I bet you your greatest "foreign paid" players will feel small in these people's presence knowing their integrity is not for sale. Say whatever you want, swearing, cursing, bad mouthing.
Well that's a load wishful thinking, Beaudan Barrett is well past the point of no return, has basically no pace anymore so doesn't take the line on, instead runs to whichever side he is going to pass to and turns his hips in that direction causing two problems, firstly cramps his outsides and secondly give advance notice of where he is passing.
Then his kicking game, apart from the odd kick pass that comes off is atrocious, stupid little pop kicks when he runs out of ideas on attack, and pointless kicks straight to defenders from good ball, he's done.
McKenzie can't run a game, to reliant on running across field and hoping the opposition follows him, hardly ever takes it to the line and pass.
The idea that all is well at 10 for the all blacks is laughable.
The backline problems are the coaching staffs issues not the players issues. A battle plan followed by the 10 is not the 10s fault if it fails. Razor is failing in his backs battle plan. Do they have a backs coach? Dmac, BB etc do not kick 30 times of their own idea's, they do that under instruction. The instruction is off. Dmac made the most try assists in pro rugby ( Test and Domestic) this year with 60. Thats not someone who cant run a game or runs sideways hoping. And he has taken it to the line on many of those try assist occasions.
2011 RWC #10 casualty list, Dan Carter (groin), Aaron Cruden (knee), Colin Slade (ankle).
Graham Henry was lucky "Beaver" was still in Waiuku, netting whitebait on the Waikato River.
And your point is????
Sorry Ben but just saying BB is great on repeat doesn't make it so. He has been a passenger for 4 or so years and it's time to move on.
🤦♂️🤣 boy oh boy I hope razor gets his way . Mounga struggled behind a forward pack that was consistently going backwards , except for Savea .
2017 mounga made B.Barret and the All Blacks look like a 1st15 team when the Barbarians and All Blacks played each other . Embarrassed barret so much they had to put him at full back so he wouldn’t cop the criticism.
that’s what mounga can do when the front row do there job sufficiently . That was also his first year in super rugby . So doing what he did that day at international level at his age will be a game I will never forget .
If we look at the All Blacks loses under careful scrutiny . There are only 2 major areas that need fixing . The centre paring but most all the fly half .
By 2027 B.Barret will be expired & dmac still won’t be as good as 2017 mounga . What happens next is yet to be seen . But if razor gets his way , I’m excited to see what the All Blacks can really do . Even more , I’m excited to witness mounga reach his full potential…
You were doing so well EDI but then you go and gloss over New Zealand having the worlds best 10 in Damien McKenzie this year lol
Talk about a prejudiced opinion!
Mounga struggled. Just leave it at that. If we havnt seen Moung's best after 55 plus tests and 5 years of BS why would that all of a sudden turn around?
Are you serious. The whole pack moving backwards except Savea. Ok, let me get it right, do you mean Julian, because if Ardie is part of the 8, why the heck is he not pushing with the other 7?
If the game was about winning player of the year awards - well done NZ. You win!
I wonder why Razor would want to change eligibility rules? The guy with the actual job to do putting a team together to win games, RCs and RWCs?
Unless he’s changed his tune re: changing eligibility rules?
He promised them while at the Crusaders.
If you're standing behind the door, don't expect to find others there. Your springboks jersey is for sale. Don't expect the NZ management to lower the value and dignity of theirs. And please, don't tell me about the professional era. Come with another argument.
Ofcourse they dont. They have a strong core of experienced internationals in NZ who are all contracted to NZR and they are building a side towards 2027. Many players have stepped up this year and will only improve. They are not losing their experienced internationals and they are producing good players. So right now there is no need to change the eligibility laws.
We need mounga . Barret will be too old come 2027 and dmac doesn’t have the brains to manage the All Blacks 2 years isn’t going to change that …