‘Getting rid of the Giteau rule is illogical’ – Stirling Mortlock

Former Wallabies skipper Stirling Mortlock believes that getting rid of ‘Giteau Law’ will hamper Australian rugby in the long-term.

Many, including Matt Giteau, who the law was named after, have come out in support of changing the eligibility criteria.

It would bring several key players back into the selection equation but Mortlock, who played in 80 Tests for Australia, disagrees with scrapping the current structure.

Lacking cohesion

“With a team without cohesion, occasionally you can play really well but consistency is extremely challenging,” Mortlock, who played 80 Tests, told AAP.

“I agree that highly cohesive teams create long-lasting success – in rugby union look at the Crusaders, who have big cohesion numbers.

“To bring back players open slather from overseas who aren’t forming combinations with the bulk of your squad, that’s going to undermine your cohesion numbers.

“Getting rid of the Giteau rule is illogical.”

Former prop Ben Darwin agrees with Mortlock and believes that having few franchises filled with current and future internationals aids cohesion at international level.

“The Welsh have a much more cohesive system than they did when we were successful and they did it by reducing the number of teams they were drawing from, from 12 domestic teams to four,” Darwin said.

“When a singular club dominates the Wallabies we’ve won.”

Some have pointed to the Springboks, who have scrapped their policy of not selecting players from overseas, as evidence that it can be a success, but Darwin is not sure going down that route is sustainable long-term.

“You can only play that card once, you can’t do that again if you’ve got an overseas-based model,” he added.

“They’ve used some of their prior cohesion to help them be successful now but it’s a very short-term answer.

“We already don’t have cohesion with our domestic product and this would 100 per cent decimate that and set us back further.”