All Blacks selection policy ‘has to change’ as ex-Crusaders boss predicts the ‘new norm’ for elite players
All Blacks fly-half Richie Mo'unga and an inset of Todd Blackadder.
Former Crusaders head coach Todd Blackadder predicts that New Zealand Rugby won’t be able to stop the country’s top players from heading abroad in between Rugby World Cups.
We’ve seen this situation play out with Richie Mo’unga and Shannon Frizell, who joined Blackadder’s Toshiba Brave Lupus after the 2023 tournament but are now set to return in time to bid for a place at the 2027 global showpiece.
Ardie Savea has also enjoyed two stints in Japan between the two World Cups, and the 54-year-old believes this trend will continue despite New Zealand Rugby’s reluctance to change its eligibility laws.
Currently, the All Blacks head coach is unable to select overseas-based players unless it’s part of a sabbatical stint abroad, like Jordie Barrett and Rieko Ioane with Leinster.
All restrictions on selecting overseas-based players were removed for Rassie Erasmus when he became the Springboks head coach in 2018, and that has often been used as evidence of the benefits of getting rid of the restrictions.
Standard of the Japan Rugby League One
However, it is argued that the level of the Japan Rugby League One competition, where many All Blacks opt to ply their trade, isn’t of high enough standard to prepare players for international rugby. While there are further arguments against changing the selection policy, as there is no control on NZ Rugby’s part over the players’ playing minutes at European clubs.
Commenting on the quality of the Japanese club competition, Blackadder argues that top players maintain their standards regardless of the league that they are playing in.
“Well, I think the standard is exactly where you’ve seen their standards. When you’ve got elite players playing at the highest level, they don’t drop their standards; they know what it’s like to have to step,” he said on the DSPN podcast with Martin Devlin.
“Ardie Savea is a class performer, I mean, how many All Blacks and World Rugby Player of the Year awards has that guy won? He’s not going to drop his standards just by changing competitions, nor will the likes of Shannon Frizell and Richie Mo’unga.
“You watch Brodie Retallick, have you ever seen him not have a great game of rugby? He’s not going to suddenly come back to New Zealand and drop his standards, because a lot of it for those guys is attitude. They know exactly what is required of them. The decisions that they’ve made to come back has actually put themselves out there.
“If they come back to New Zealand and they’re not good enough, well, they won’t be selected. The ones that are coming back want to fight for something. So that’s a massive positive.”
Frizell and Mo’unga are set to bolster Dave Rennie’s selection pool as they return to New Zealand next season, signing for the Highlanders and Crusaders, respectively. Blackadder says that this is a positive for NZ Rugby going forward, but they have to be cautious in what they do when they do decide to change their eligibility laws.
“New Zealand rugby union and the board have to be really careful and balanced in the way that they do, but for New Zealanders wanting to come home to play for their beloved team, it can only be a positive, as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
“They want to compete with all the other boys who are there working just as hard and have hopes and dreams of being an All Black as well.
“Maybe a bloody good All Black trial wouldn’t go a miss at some stage.”
More All Blacks will head abroad during World Cups
He predicts that several top players in New Zealand will follow Mo’unga and Frizell’s ploy of plying their trade abroad during World Cups but return in time to bid for a place at the next tournament.
“What’s definitely going to happen is that there will be a lot more players who are going to go overseas. Those elite guys are going to go overseas in between World Cups,” Blackadder added.
“That’s just going to be the norm going forward. And then, if they still have the desire and the ambition to come back and try to get back to being an All Black again, that’s going to happen.
“So, whether New Zealand can accommodate that around some sort of law changes, all that’s going to do is give more guys in New Zealand an opportunity. So it’s going to create more opportunities for more players.
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“What we don’t really want to be doing is developing guys for overseas countries like that young guy Riley Higgins – he’s a young, talented back going to play for Edinburgh who will be eligible for Scotland. What New Zealand needs to do is keep more of those guys.
“Like Leicester [Fainga’anuku] going to play in France to then come back to be eligible for the All Blacks again is probably going to be the norm. Last year, when he did that, he came back and played really, really well and then made the All Blacks again. So it is happening now. I suppose we just have to find a way that can accommodate the needs of New Zealand rugby as well as the aspirations of the guys wanting to come back to be eligible for the All Blacks, and that is done in a fair way.”
Giteau-esque law?
While Blackadder predicts that New Zealand Rugby will eventually change its selection eligibility at some point, he adds that following South Africa and opening the floodgates is not the right path for the All Blacks.
He suggests something more akin to Australia’s old Giteau Law, where a player should meet certain international and/or club appearance markers before leaving New Zealand shores to be eligible.
“But I think things will change; they just have to. I think opening things up so that everyone’s eligible, I don’t think that would be great for our domestic competitions, but we have to find a mechanism that works,” he said.
“And what you talked about before that, maybe it’s 20 or 30 Tests or something like that that keeps them there long enough, but still doesn’t stop them from an overseas opportunity where they could earn a lot of revenue to then come back to play for the All Blacks again.”