LONG READ 'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

‘Inclusivity’ is a popular term in today’s world. The Cambridge Dictionary definition spells it out as “the fact of including all types of people, things or ideas, and treating them all fairly and equally.” In practice, the path to embracing as many varied, and potentially inconvenient truths as possible is gradual and painful, a case of three steps forward and two back. A linear progression, it is most definitely not.

On planet rugby, the meaning changes according to which side of the globe you inhabit. The need to include club and country in the identity of the professional game, and find a point of balance between the two, has preoccupied administrators north of the equator ever since the big sea change back in 1995-96.

For Australia, ‘inclusivity’ is attuned more to the necessity of wrangling Australians at home and abroad back to the same ranch, treating them all the same in selection and bringing them all within a broad canvas of thinking and planning. Australia is not in any position to neglect its assets, wherever they happen to be living and plying their trade, far or near.

The vastly different points of view quoted in my last piece amply attested to the difficulty. On the one hand, a recently departed RA chairman who saw the need to recruit star quality from league and market it to the hilt; on the other, a current performance director who understood development as grabbing native athletic talent early, and relying on the strength of Australia’s age-group programmes to keep it.

Neither outlook addressed the problem of including Australians playing and coaching overseas into the bargain. Peter Horne focused on the sense of connection between age-group, state and national level, Super Rugby and the Wallabies. He was resigned to losing talent overseas, with no boomerang back to Aussie. At a recent high-performance workshop in Brisbane, he explained it as follows:

“Having four clubs, we have had traditionally 27 foreigners within our system.

“We want to invest in Australians, effectively. Potentially there will always be a need to have foreign talents to pick up where we have some gaps but the idea is over time, those franchises become more and more Australian-eligible.

Over time, we’ll see [a] demographic change. We will lose a few of the older players and they may choose to go to Europe, or choose a different direction.

“But I think what we’ve got now is a pretty robust pathway connected to Super. And those available spots will start to be filled by not foreigners, but Aussies.”

So far, so good. But how do you corral the Aussies who have moved overseas, but still want to offer value to the Australian game? How do you tap into their knowledge and experience and make it a part of the programme at the elite end of the game?

The 64-man Wallaby selection for the upcoming twin tour of the UK suggests there is little desire to include that expertise. Will Skelton and Samu Kerevi were added to the mix, but Marika Koroibete was dropped. Their professional club tags were cleverly omitted upon announcement: Skelton was labelled as ‘Wallaby number 883, Wentworthville Magpies’, big Kev as ‘892, Souths Magpies’. Their current provenance in Stade Rochelais [France] and Urayasu D-Rocks [Japan] was never acknowledged.

There were no foreigners at all in the junior ‘Australia XV’ tour party, so the announcement safely devolved to states as well as their origin clubs. But there was no Scott Sio, no Izack Rodda, and no Izaia Perese in the senior squad; no Tom Staniforth, Matt Philip, Josh Kemeny, Tawera Kerr-Barlow or James O’Connor on the stair below. At least two or three of those might have helped, but Australia has chosen to go its own sweet way.

The myopia of the current selection posture is highlighted by current events at the Leicester Tigers club in England. The Welford Road outfit is the proud possessor of a long history of IP exchange with Australia. Bob Dwyer was appointed as the club’s first professional coach in 1996, and trail he blazed has been followed by many others since, with profit to both sides of the conversation: Duncan Hall, Matt O’Connor, Pat Howard, Peter Hewat, Rod Kafer, Phil Blake, Dan Palmer.

When one recent Wallaby coach, Dan McKellar, failed to take root at the club last season, Tigers were not at all deterred, promptly appointing another Aussie in his place. And they have been repaid for their faith. Thus far, ex-Wallaby and Waratah supremo Michael Cheika has led his new charges to a five wins out of six, and second place in the league after six rounds of Premiership play.

The benefits of a truly inclusive, open-minded attitude were shown off in no uncertain terms by the comments of the man himself.

“I was actually planning on going back to Australia. My family has gone back there because we were so far down the road of going back after my time with Argentina.

“A club that has got a reputation like this [pre-]existing genuinely piqued my interest.

“I wanted to see inside and see how I could add the next layer onto what is already a great club, and try my best to make it better and challenge myself in that way.”

Australia sorely needs intellects with that attitude to new experience in unfamiliar settings. It is the kind of inclusivity which virtually guarantees the success of the venture.

One of the players Cheika has brought with him to Welford Road is ex-New South Wales centre-cum-wing Perese. He is one of the players who fell into the ‘unfulfilled promise’ category while he was with the Sky Blues on home territory. After the recent Premiership match against Saracens, Cheika remembered the time he first coached Perese with the Wallabies.

“I saw him coming through as a 16-year-old and we took him as a development player on one of the tours here, and he was excellent,” he told BBC Radio Leicester.

“He’s had a crazy journey but I think he’s getting more mature, he’s understanding his game. He’s more ‘freelance’. We have a system but we adapt to him and how he plays.

“He’s just had a new child, his family’s really integrated to the lifestyle here and he’s really enjoying it.”

After progressing smoothly through the junior Wallaby age-group sides, Perese hit the wall at senior provincial level and stopped progressing. He played three games for Dave Rennie’s Wallabies before disappearing from the green-and-gold selection vista, but all the while he was capable of gilt-edged attacking moments such as this.

A player with attacking ability like that needs a second look, and he deserved it on one of the twin tours in November. Perese is beginning to move towards a performance peak again, primarily because he feels at home in his new surroundings, and as he explained succinctly: “I’ve fallen in love with the Premiership.”

Perese was anointed man of the match in Leicester’s win at the StoneX, and he fulfilled all Cheika’s requirements of him as an attacking ‘freelancer’. Despite wearing the number 13 on his back, his first three offensive interventions were all off the wing.

Cheika’s Tigers were always on the lookout for areas in which they could isolate Perese on a single defender, for the very simple reason he always beats the first tackler. So, the ex-Waratah twice received ball out on the right edge – skinning former England full-back Alex Goode in the first clip – and once on the left, smashing England hopeful Tobias Elliott aside in the second.

In the second half, Tigers used Perese’s bull-like strength and quick feet to bust straight up the middle.

When the ball needed to be kept tight and they wanted to plough a furrow straight up the middle of the pitch, Leicester even had their ace freelancer trigger strong pick and go sequences up the guts of the defence.

When you own that kind of ability to keep the tackler away from your feet, there must be a premium value placed upon it in coaching and selection, wherever you happen to be working on the face of the globe. Leicester have given up the fewest points in a high-scoring league [107 at under 18 points per game], so Perese is learning something about the art of defence too.

Somehow Australian rugby needs to embrace the idea of inclusivity; yes, the possibility of including athletes from other sports, but also reaching out to more players and coaches working overseas.

Horne and Schmidt are busy tweaking the vertical alignment of the Wallabies with the states, clubs and the age-group sides beneath them at home. But the horizontal axis cannot be forgotten in the process – the need to interface meaningfully with players and coaches abroad and harness the IP they represent. When Cheika was asked whether his own presence at Leicester would improve the club, he replied simply: “I hope so, otherwise we may as well just go home.”