White calls for compromise on eligibility rule
BRUMBIESCOACH Jake White has called on Sanzar officials to take another look at their strict rules which prevents players from being involved in the playoffs if they aren’t registered for their franchise by April 1.
Following the loss of playmakers Matt Toomua and Christian Lealiifano, White has recruited former Waratah Peter Hewat out of Japanese rugby for the rest of the campaign. But while the 34-year-old Hewat will be able to help the Brumbies get to the playoffs, he can’t go any further with them.
Sanzar decided to change the eligibility rules after the Stormers plucked Schalk Brits out of English Premiership rugby to play against the Crusaders in last year’s semifinal, something that enraged Todd Blackadder. It was an embarrassing situation to have someone who hadn’t been involved in a whole campaign rock up to a semifinal, so Sanzar brought in the April 1 deadline.
However, White believes there needs to be some middle ground so that if a teamhas a genuine need to bring in someone they can still play in the playoffs. Sunday News.
‘‘What would be nice is if they looked at it on merit but there is this hard and fast rule about April 1.
‘‘I’m talking as an Australian coach and they need to look at ways in which there is a genuine need for that player,’’ White told
‘‘What you don’t want is a situation where the Bulls bring back Bakkies Botha and Gurthro Steenkamp and the Sharks bring back Ruan Pienaar from Europe, because that also makes a mockery of the competition.
‘‘They’ve gone from last year, where the Stormers tried to sneak a guy in from Saracens (Britz), to a rule that no-one can ever break.’’
Ironically, Stormers coach Allister Coetzee is moaning about the change because he has recently signed Canadian Jebb Sinclair and believes teams should be able to register players for the playoffs after April 1.
‘‘I read his comments and I must say that if a South African coach says that, who has under 21s, a Vodacom Cup team and university teams where he can go and find another player, you can imagine how difficult it is for an Australian franchise, becauseweonly have a certain amount of players,’’ White said.
‘‘What needs to happen is that it needs to be looked at. If two coaches are saying ‘come on chaps you have to be reasonable here’, then there is a reason for that to happen. I asked if Peter Hewat could play in the finals and they said no. I can understand why, because the Stormers messed it up last year by bringing Schalk in from nowhere, which didn’t sent the right message out.’’