Time to let the world’s best players into Super Rugby
Since rugby turned professional and created international demand for quality players, New Zealand has seen itself as a victim of the globalisation of the labour market.
The talent has flowed out of New Zealand since the late 1990s and that has hardened the resolve of those running the game here to adopt the most austere protectionist policies to retain their home-grown talent.
But self-styled victimhood hasn’t just intensified New Zealand’s desire to stop the best players heading out, it has also created an almost xenophobic desire to stop the rest of the world’s best players coming in.
New Zealand Rugby, who directly controlled the recruitment of all players until 2012, have never been open to foreign players looking for a Super Rugby stint.
There was a little more wriggle room for players whose eligibility had been captured by Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.
Super Rugby clubs were allowed to carry two non-New Zealand-eligible Pacific Island players, but the money available to them was effectively prohibitive to keeping them in the country, as was evidenced in the case of Rupeni Caucaunibuca.
He was sensational for the Blues in 2003 — without doubt the most exciting and watchable player on the planet — but he committed to Fiji after that campaign and that saw NZR freeze his salary at the base level of $75,000 which led to him signing with French club Agen the following year where he was paid a reported $600,000.
In 2012, recruitment was handed directly to the clubs, and since then, there has been an increase in the number of foreign players in Super Rugby.
But it has been only a trickle, mostly because the money hasn’t been available for compelling offers.
Which doesn’t make sense, as the few who have made it here, have unquestionably added something to the competition and given Super Rugby just a hint of the exotic.
The Chiefs got extraordinary value out of Canadian captain Tyler Ardron, who was a must-pick for them between 2018 and 2020.
The Highlanders used their inside knowledge of the Japanese market to recruit two gems in Fumiaki Tanaka and Kazuki Himeno, and this season, the Crusaders have been bolstered by the presence of former Pumas captain Pablo Matera.
It feels like the clubs have an appetite to recruit from offshore, but not the means, and they need NZR to help them by playing around with the budgets to free up cash so each team has the financial capacity to contract one foreign player per season.
New Zealand has a revered talent production system. But as good as it is, it doesn’t spit out enough Super Rugby quality players any more now that squad sizes have expanded to 38.
Most clubs would admit they are each spending about $500,000 a year on a handful of local lads who aren’t up to scratch, creating a logical counter argument that says that sort of money would be better spent on luring a high-profile international star.
The real value in foreign recruitment may be intangible.
The rest of the world has plundered Kiwi talent and benefited from the influx of intellectual property they bring and yet in New Zealand, there remains a view that there is nothing to be learned from outsiders or any possibility of a return on investment.
It is not only outdated to think like that, but perhaps a touch arrogant because a world class operator such as Matera, with a deeply ingrained sense of professionalism, has most likely taught the Crusaders as much as he has learned from them.
Those not developed here bring a freshness and variety of thinking that can be invaluable. Look back to how much Ronan O’Gara brought as an assistant coach to the Crusaders and how Richie Mo’unga grew as a No 10 under the tutelage of the former Irish first-five.
All it will take for this world to become a reality is a simple realisation that New Zealand can exploit the global labour market the same as everyone else.