Opinion: Dave Rennie is right, it’s time to ditch New Zealand Rugby’s outdated All Blacks policy
Brodie Retallick and an inset of All Blacks coach Dave Rennie.
It’s Groundhog Day as the newest All Blacks head coach presses for New Zealand Rugby to loosen the selection shackles and embrace what the modern game has become, global.
The year is 2026, and it’s frankly absurd that the bigwigs in England and Aotearoa are so old-school that they cannot fathom the idea that a player can earn their regular paycheck abroad whilst still representing their country.
Before we really get stuck into it, let’s caveat this by stating that the new NZ Rugby board hasn’t come out and stated that Dave Rennie can’t select overseas-based players yet, but in the same breath, they haven’t said he can either.
Maybe the hard-nose former Wallabies and Chiefs boss successfully negotiated that he can be afforded the luxury that no other All Blacks coach has before. It would be some feat if he had.
This publication has long advocated for New Zealand to relax their selection policy, addressing the issue several times, backing a ‘Barrett Law’ when the experienced playmaker was linked with a move abroad.
It’s not just an issue with Aotearoa, as Australia were stubborn in their approach before allowing Joe Schmidt free rein last year, whilst England’s stance remains problematic with the brilliant Jack Willis overlooked simply because he plies his trade with arguably the best club team in the world, Toulouse. Willis’ situation is made all the worse considering the fact that he only left England because his club, Wasps, entered administration.
But turning attention back to New Zealand, Rennie’s argument on day one as the new All Blacks head coach was a simple one. “Brodie Retallick is fitter than he’s ever been. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to, but there’s no doubt you want to win a World Cup, ideally, you’ve got your best players available.” Rocket science, it is not.
Inevitable Springboks parallels
The parallels with the All Blacks’ greatest rivals, the Springboks, are unavoidable. South Africa also made a head coach change 18-odd months out from a World Cup, replacing Allister Coetzee with Rassie Erasmus but when doing so, they also gave the new boss carte blanche to select the best players, no matter where they played their club rugby. A ploy that paid off in spades.
Erasmus would recall then-Sale Sharks-based Faf de Klerk and issued a Test debut to one Cheslin Kolbe, who became just the second player to make their first appearance for the Springboks whilst contracted to an overseas club – after Steven Kitshoff. The 2019 Rugby World Cup final-winning team boasted seven overseas-based players in the matchday 23, three of whom had over 50 Test caps.
That last stat matters. International rugby is all about the one-percentage advantage that a team can gain, and experience at the highest level is paramount. Frans Steyn, Francois Louw and Willie le Roux brought 197 caps worth of experience to that team that played in the final; Rennie could better that with just Sam Cane and Retallick.
It’s blatant arrogance to think that players of Cane and Retallick’s calibre and experience can immediately be replaced by a Super Rugby Pacific rookie.
But let’s not kid ourselves, changing a rigid selection policy that New Zealand Rugby has in place comes with pros and cons.
Widening the selection pool is an automatic positive for a coach but it goes deeper than that as players are then able to expose themselves to new environments, tactics and ways of doing things. Look at Jordie Barrett’s stint with Leinster. He was always a world-class player, but his time in Ireland has undoubtedly made him an even better and despite missing Super Rugby Pacific, he was still comfortably one of the All Blacks’ best last year.
Rennie has spoken frankly about how much he learned during his time with Glasgow Warriors, and if a coach can come away from a stint abroad with so many positives, then so can players.
“There’s been massive strides made up north, and we take for granted that all the innovation and everything comes from New Zealand, and that’s not the case,” he told Jeff Wilson on Sky Sports NZ.
“We have got to respect what’s been happening out there, and we’ve got to learn from it.”
Reward for service
Erasmus has admitted the same after his stint with Munster and has repeatedly tapped into the IP that the players have collected during these spells at the European clubs and in Japan.
Speaking of Japan, it’s an ideal competition for experienced All Blacks as it offers a less demanding schedule, a less physically demanding style of player and is a shorter flight than to Europe.
Further advantages include rewarding servants of the game without exiling them. Rennie again touched on this with regards to Retallick.
“I think there’ll be players who earned the right to go overseas and cash in, who have committed to the country with Super Rugby and to the All Blacks,” he said.
He suggests that it should be done on a case-by-case basis. Retallick’s case reads almost a decade at the Chiefs, over 120 Super Rugby appearances, 12 years as an All Black, 109 Test appearances, nine tries, and a Rugby World Cup trophy.
During that time, he was rewarded with one season in Japan whilst remaining eligible for the All Blacks but does he deserve to be exiled now as he looks to ensure his family’s financial health before hanging up his boots? Surely not.
Allowing servants like Retallick the opportunity to see out the final years of their playing career abroad but remaining eligible for All Blacks selection really feels like a no-brainer.
Him leaving the Chiefs has allowed for Tupou Vaa’i to take on more of a leadership role at the Super Rugby club and he has certainly improved as a Test rugby player as a result. While Retallick’s absence has created a void that younger players can start to plug – Josh Lord and Naitoa Ah Kuoi in particular. It also means that the Chiefs and New Zealand Rugby aren’t carrying the weight of a veteran All Blacks’ salary and are able to reinvest that elsewhere. That could be for development structures or even to keep over stars on New Zealand shores.
Those are clearly the pros but the naysayers will raise the cons too. For starters, the ‘access’ to the players.
Brodie Retallick adds caveat to ‘no consideration’ response to Dave Rennie’s All Blacks return call
Cons
World Rugby regulation nine is quite strictly followed nowadays as clubs enforce their right to hold back the release of international talents when they are not required to. In fact, the PREM Rugby clubs are fined if they don’t adhere to it.
Any Tests played outside the official World Rugby windows then require special dispensation from those clubs. This is certainly an annoyance that can be remedied with clear planning and strong relationships with those clubs. Again, South Africa have managed this rather well with Japanese clubs regularly allowing their stars to feature in out-of-window Tests.
The end of the Japanese season means that players plying their trade in Asia are available before the start of the international season, but others in the north will only arrive in the week of the first game of the year. The latter is far from ideal, but how much in-training alignment does an experienced international really need? Surely a lot can be covered virtually.
New Zealand Rugby also lose control over a player’s minutes if they sign for a club abroad, which used to be a much bigger problem than it is now, with global standards and restrictions put in place. Additionally, those clubs want to look after their investments too and will be mindful of burnout.
It was once a strength of the All Blacks that all their players plied their trade in Aotearoa but it’s becoming increasingly less so. Even for the likes of Ireland who have been bitten on an occasion due to a lack of adaptability from their structures with Leinster-heavy selections.
And the biggest argument against loosening the selection policy is that a mass exodus will occur. That certainly happened in South Africa with a plethora of the 2019 World Cup winners signing deals abroad after the tournament.
However, there are several ways to avoid this from occurring. For starters, South Africa opened the floodgates with the full removal of requirements to select overseas-based players. Setting clear provisions like 100+ Super Rugby caps and say 75 Test caps could even encourage some players to delay moves abroad until they hit those markers.
Additionally, Galactico teams like the Clermont and Toulon of old are just simply not possible in most competitions anymore. The Top 14 clubs have to adhere to policies that encourage academy promotion, which directly impacts their budgets. Japan is also reducing the permitted number of internationally capped players, while English clubs also benefit from programs that promote locally grown talents, along with their marquee signings.
Justin Marshall: Dave Rennie’s Brodie Retallick suggestion ‘a step backwards’
The calls for New Zealand to change their outdated policy have been ringing for a long, long time now, but nothing has changed. In 2024, Ardie Savea was one of those who called for change.
Savea calls for change and Eddie Jones’ take
“My thing is if you’re Kiwi and you’re playing across the world, you should be allowed to. But I know these rules were set in place for a reason,” he told Jim Hamilton.
“But I think, like being able to slowly evolve and change, for players to play somewhere else and still be available, that should be looked at, or it should evolve.
“Like, look at Jordie Barrett going to Leinster, Irish territory, and that’s like something that’s never been done, but hopefully it just slowly gradually evolves in that kind of way, us playing here [Japan] and being able to still be available for the All Blacks. It’ll be good. South Africa have proven it. They’ve got the boys playing here in this competition, and they go and become world champions.”
While Savea says that South Africa have proven it can work, Eddie Jones believes that it’s a massive advantage for the Springboks, pointing to Malcolm Marx as a prime example.
“For the best players, they get plenty of touches, practice, they have a good lifestyle – they don’t have to do any media or endorsements – and they get well paid. Their wives are happy, families are happy and come back refreshed,” Jones said on the Rugby Unity podcast.
“Look at Malcolm Marx, he’s just won World Rugby Player of the Year, and he’s played here the last three years. It’s an advantage for them, a massive advantage.”
Loosening the selection shackles widens the selection pool, allowing experienced players to cash in and test themselves in new environments without being a total loss to the All Blacks.
As Rennie said, New Zealand is no longer the ‘sole innovators’ in the game and now have to adapt or continue to slide.
NZ Rugby felt that the All Blacks’ situation was so dire that a change in head coach was needed, so it would be arrogant to think that policies don’t need changing, too. A player like Retallick can only do more good than harm to get the team ‘back on track’ for the Rugby World Cup.
