Wallabies legend pinpoints where Australia are going wrong as he proposes new ‘opportunity’ to develop
Drew Mitchell on Wallabies players returning
Former Wallabies star Drew Mitchell has called for a shake-up of the rugby system in Australia after claiming that the Giteau Law has been “a bit redundant” over the last couple of years.
The 41-year-old has suggested that Wallabies-qualified players should be encouraged to expand their game over to other countries to learn and improve their game when they’re in the infancy of their professional careers.
The idea is that as they start to hit their peak, they would return to Australia to provide a more wide-ranging and greater impact on the Wallabies and Australian club teams in Super Rugby.
The Wallabies’ growth opportunity
Speaking on the KOKO show, Mitchell said: “There’s such a growth opportunity. We should be encouraging players to go and experience styles of rugby overseas, collaborate with different players, different coaches, and get insight into rugby IP around the world.
“Look at the impact that Will Skelton had. The last three or four years that he’s had at La Rochelle, that kind of impact he brought back into the team. It was dynamic and influential.
“Change is as good as a holiday. They have to start again. They have to prove themselves again. They have to work in a different environment, work with different players and collaborate with different coaches. Think about the growth.”
Naturally, ideas like these are often a case of wishful thinking rather than having an actual logical base, but Mitchell believes there is potential there.
“The Reds have done up in Italy,” he said. “They partnered with Benetton Treviso, so some of their players go up there, some of Benetton’s players come down here.
“I think we’ve got the contracting around the wrong way. We’ll develop and build players to the point where they become international stars, and once they get that status, then they go and play overseas and we miss them in Super Rugby.
“A lot of it’s just about getting a cultural experience and the growth of you as a player. But if we all partnered with Saracens or Toulouse or Toulon or Leinster or whoever, and did that sort of thing where you go over early in your contract.
“So your 19-year-old signs a five-year deal with Rugby Australia/Saracens. Two years up there first, but back-end, they have to come back here to Australia once they’re developed, so we get them when they’re in their prime, rather than building them up to their prime and then they go away.”
The drawbacks
There are always issues with players being so far away from their home nations, particularly when it comes to test matches, a concern that’s not lost on Mitchell.
“There is a window for World Rugby where they have to be released from the clubs. The issue is, we need them a week or two earlier so that they’re not just coming the first test week, and then they’ve got four days to prepare for the first test.
“The issue is, maybe we find some sort of deal where we can pay the clubs for an extra two weeks and get them down here, get them in the training camps, so you get a little bit more in the preparation for the test matches, rather than just the week of the test.”
The other major drawback was, due to the international commitments, players would not be available to play for their club sides during the test window. This would surely drop the value of the players, compared to those who waived their international availability during the Giteau Law era, and would likely affect the potential earnings from club contracts.
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