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'There’s more to it': Former All Black captain doubtful of eligibility rule change
By Ben Smith
Former All Black captain and current Toshiba Brave Lupus head coach Todd Blackadder does not think NZR will change the eligibility rules for All Black selection anytime soon.
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The Japan-based coach offers a unique perspective with his club having received the services of two new All Blacks, Shannon Frizell and Richie Mo’unga, while another Seta Tamanivalu is a key weapon for the club.
The downstream ramifications of the selection change was of concern to the former Crusader, with all levels of rugby in New Zealand set to be impacted.
“I don’t think it will happen for a while,” Blackadder told 1News in an interiew.
“It’s really going to come down to governance models. There’s so much that has to be unpicked.”
A change in All Blacks selection eligibility would open up different pathways to becoming an All Black, with younger players potentially jetting offshore early for riches knowing that they can chase the black jersey from elsewhere.
It could have large impacts for the development systems in New Zealand losing young players and therefore losing control over their development and playing identity.
“It’s not so much about the selection policy – it will have a massive impact on grass roots rugby, it will have a massive impact on school rugby and it will have a massive impact on provincial rugby, plus the All Blacks of course.”
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The other concern to Blackadder was how overseas clubs manage the players through a season and through injuries.
The All Blacks will have little oversight or knowledge of that and not have the full picture when it comes to selections.
“There’s also the management of players to consider – there’s more to it than ‘we just want the ability to pick guys from overseas’,” he said.
“When you’re playing around the world… those clubs may not always be willing to release those players and if they were willing to then they would probably be on reduced contracts.”
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When they changed the ellibility rules in SA rugby, we were very fearful for the same reasons that NZ are now.
It has actually had the opposite effect.
With most Boks playing at overseas clubs, young talent had to be introduced into the provincial franchise teams. It has unearthed a wealth if talent. Players who would have been kept out of the franchise teams by players like Pollard, Kolbe, Etsebeth etc, now had an opportunity to prove their worth. Moodie, Arendse, etc would most likely never been spotted.
We have in SA so many brilliant youngsters coming through that you could pick 2 or 3 Bok teams of near equal strength.
Also, your incumbent Bok players are pushed to be at their best by the upcoming young stars. I.e. Pollard with Libbock pushing him.
The secret is a solid strong rugby development system. As much as everyone thinks Rassie is in charge of the Bok team, he is not. He is director of SA rugby and has developed a magnificent rugby system from u/16 schools, yo u/20, varsity rugby through to the Boks.
Can something like this work in NZ?
Most of these discussions around overseas All Blacks eligibility are largely pointless. It’s highly unlikely NZR would consider a black and white solution like Blackadder alludes to, it would far more likely be a very limited dispensation for a small number of players who had already earnt their stripes. It’s been reported NZR came very close to making a dispensation for Beauden Barret to be eligible from overseas. So there are already those inside the secretive offices of NZR pushing for change, and it seems inevitable eventually. But it would be very controlled one would expect, so the fearmongering of a mass exodus is being way overdone.