Southerners on the front line of NZR’s Japan bet
The argument is easy to understand. New Zealand Rugby is allowing players to take up contracts in Japan to stop them leaving for good.
It has become an absolutely vital plank in its retention policy – and something of a gamble.
It will only pay off if the athletes it gets back from Japan are still fit for purpose after the rigours of back-to-back seasons.
And the epicentre of NZ Rugby’s big bet? Dunedin, the little Tokyo of the deep south.
The Highlanders have deep links to Japan.
Former Highlanders coach Jamie Joseph now coaches the national team, where he is assisted by former Highlanders coach Tony Brown, the coach of the Sunwolves, who is assisted by Cory Brown, the former Otago coach (and his brother).
Ex-Highlanders Hayden Parker and Jason Emery were both part of the Sunwolves’ win against the Chiefs last week.
And, crucially, the Highlanders have four players – Marty Banks, Tom Franklin, Richard Buckman and Elliot Dixon – who are taking part in Super Rugby this year after playing in Japan’s Top League last year.
In some ways they are the guinea pigs in New Zealand rugby’s brave new alliance with Japan.
If they perform well this year NZR will feel a lot more comfortable about a policy that is yet to be really tested.
Even the Highlanders are feeling their way through the process, with former lock Joe Wheeler playing a key role.
Wheeler has done the back-toback Super Rugby-Japan seasons and Highlanders head coach Aaron Mauger said the Highlanders devised their reintroduction programmes for Banks, Franklin, Buckman and Dixon based on Wheeler’s advice.
In a nutshell, it’s tough.
So, the Highlanders told their Japan Four to take two weeks off when they got back to New Zealand.
It produced a few frowns. Rugby players aren’t good at not playing, especially when they still harbour All Blacks dreams, but all were action against the Hurricanes last night.
Still, Mauger insisted because busted players are no good to him: he needs them to be fizzing, particularly in the second part of the campaign.
That he was willing to accommodate their late returns is important for another reason, too.
It represents the changing attitude among decision-makers in New Zealand rugby; one that says ‘OK, we’re going to lose players so the next question is how do we get them back?’
When asked if New Zealand was simply going to have to get smart about reintegrating players coming off Japan contracts, Mauger said: ‘‘Especially if we want to keep those players.
‘‘In an ideal world we’d keep all those guys for as long as we could but the challenge of the overseas market and how that’s working at the moment, the amount of money that’s been thrown at these guys, the opportunities to set their families up, it’s understandable that people will leave.
‘‘You can’t fault them for the decision they make. We’re just fortunate that our guys wanted to come back, it speaks a lot for our environment.’’
That mentality was echoed by Hurricanes CEO Avan Lee, who is likely to lose the biggest fish of them all, Beauden Barrett, to a Japan deal.
‘‘He’s a young guy with no kids so it could work out really nicely for him to go for a year,’’ Lee told Stuff in January.
There are risks, of course. Perhaps it is a sign of surrender that will eventually lead to the dismantling of the All Blacks’ selection policy, although they have already picked Matt Todd when he was in Japan.
More likely it is a reflection of the world we live in, where a small economy such as New Zealand must find some new ways to keep its players.
If that is the case then it is all eyes on the Highlanders.
Can the likes of Franklin, who spent time with the All Blacks last year, prove that even tight forwards can go from Super Rugby to Japan and then back again?
The powerbrokers in Wellington will be hoping the answer is yes.