All Black invasion will boost the Quins
THE deal that Harlequins have struck with New Zealand Rugby (NZR) to turn the Premiership club into a sabbatical host for All Blacks looks good at first glance. Dig deeper, however, and there are number of contentious issues that appear to have been overlooked by the RFU and Premiership rugby in waving this through.
The RFU, who apparently have no objections to the partnership, have given the green light to an agreement which cuts across the current club arrangements regarding foreign players.
Put simply, by allowing one club to benefit from an influx of players and coaches from New Zealand, the top Union in the world over the last eight years, the RFU could be accused by other Premiership clubs of giving Quins an unfair competitive advantage.
The same applies to PRL, the Premiership’s administrative arm. They appeared to be unaware of the potential for disagreement between their member clubs, and, when questioned about the Kiwi-Quins accord, a spokesman told me: “We were given a heads-up, and we are generally supportive of this sort of expansion.”
Others might ask why, as the body representing English rugby’s elite club league, they were not given the fine detail of the initiative to scrutinise well in advance of any announcement.
Harlequins were an obvious partner because they have ties with New Zealand stretching back to the amateur era through All Blacks like Earle Kirton and Andy Haden. It has continued in the pro era with former All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick currently a member of the Harlequins board, Zinzan Brooke as a former director of rugby, and through recently retired fly-half Nick Evans being appointed attack coach.
That list of luminaries will not stop their Premiership rivals being very wary of the advantage that Harlequins could derive over the course of a season if All Blacks, aspiring All Blacks, and New Zealand U20 players start parachuting into the Stoop on sabbaticals.
The devil is always in the detail, especially as under current regulations no Premiership team can put more than two foreign players on the field at any one time.
However, there seems to be no impediment under this arrangement for Harlequins to bring in All Blacks, and/or young Kiwi talent that NZR want to fast track, on a two at a time basis for two-month sabbaticals throughout the season.
As part of an ‘exchange programme’ Harlequins will also have the opportunity to send players and coaches to benefit from gaining valuable experience in New Zealand, with Evans already earmarked for a coaching post.
The NZR initiative is a response to the player drain which is seeing increased numbers of All Blacks leaving New Zealand because they are opting for the bigger salaries on offer in European club rugby.
This has seen All Black stocks depleted over the last year with the likes of fly-half Aaron Cruden (Montpellier), centre Malakai Fekitoa (Toulon) and back rower Steven Luatua (Bristol) already in Europe.
Meanwhile Lima Sopoaga and Brad Shields have both signed for Wasps, with Jerome Kaino (Toulouse), Liam Messam (Toulon), George Moala (Clermont) and Charlie Ngatai (Lyon) all leaving for their new clubs after the Super Rugby season.
With the NZR sticking to their strict rule of not selecting from overseas, the sabbatical arrangement will have the dual benefit of All Blacks being able to reap the financial benefits of a stint overseas while remaining contracted to the NZR.
NZR chief executive Steve Tew had good reason to be upbeat. “This is new territory for New Zealand Rugby and this unique relationship will open some useful connections in that part of the world.
“With its strong ex-pat community, London is of key strategic importance to New Zealand Rugby. This alignment will create significant opportunities for both sides, with players, coaches and staff able to learn from different environments with different people, challenges and cultures.”
Tew’s Harlequins counterpart, Dave Ellis, also emphasised the positives saying that being aligned with the All Blacks ‘benchmark for excellence’ would be a significant benefit.
However, which players they get, for how long, and whether the benefits out- weigh the disruption, remains to be seen. The message from NZR chief of strategy Nigel Cass was not quite as gung-ho as that of his boss, Tew. He said New Zealand will not be trading the secrets of their success, and that there were no current plans for All Blacks to be playing for Harlequins.
Instead, Cass stressed the commercial benefits, which start with the All Blacks carrying out promotional activities at Harlequins around their Autumn series Test against England in November.
He said: “We’ve got really tight controls in terms of confidentiality and we are very careful about what we share. We don’t want to overstate what this is – it is just an agreement to recognise that they are strategically placed in London and we share a major commercial partner in adidas.”
If that’s the case, Quins fans are unlikely to see it as such ground-breaking news.
“Premiership rivals will be very wary of the advantage that Quins could derive over the course of a season”