Rugby Australia boss clarifies ‘Giteau Law’ as Joe Schmidt makes ‘deliberate decision’ and reveals All Blacks pact
Daniel Herbert has clarified the criteria for overseas players to be selected for the Wallabies that includes an All Blacks pact.
Rugby Australia chairman Daniel Herbert has clarified the criteria for overseas players to be selected for the Wallabies.
In his first year as head coach, Joe Schmidt has selected just one overseas-based player in his squad in winger Marika Koroibete, who only got called into the team ahead of the Rugby Championship campaign.
Instead, Schmidt has opted to get to know the locally-based talent better and has issued no less than 16 players their first caps for the Wallabies.
However, there have been calls for the Wallabies boss to turn to overseas-based stars to bolster the squad and Herbert has explained what criteria they have to meet in order to be selected.
He has also revealed that Rugby Australia have an overarching agreement with New Zealand Rugby that they will not go full hog and give Schmidt Carte Blanche in selecting overseas-based players.
Wallabies’ ‘Giteau Law’
Back in 2015, Australia tweaked their selection policy under ex-head Michael Cheika to allow him to pick overseas-based players ahead of the 2015 Rugby World Cup. The policy has undergone several changes over the years with players needing to reach a certain number of caps – internationally and in Super Rugby – and at a point required the player to have signed a deal to join an Australian team ahead of the next season.
However, that is no longer the case as Herbert has confirmed that the requirements are far looser for Schmidt as it changed under Eddie Jones in 2023 as well.
“In terms of overseas eligibility there’s plenty of freedom there,” Herbert explained on the ROAR Rugby podcast.
“There’s plenty of flexibility there right now, if they [the Wallabies coaching team] want to use it and if you go back to even around the COVID time where we deliberately put a lot of flexibility in and around the policy with the closedown of the borders.
“That year we had Quade [Cooper], Samu [Kerevi], Sean McMahon, the Arnolds [Richie and Rory], [Will] Skelton, we had a bunch of players and then on the overseas tour we had we had other people come in as well – some we haven’t seen since.
“So there is the ability for Joe to pick a number of those players and if he felt that the team would be improved by picking some others then he need only ask. Where there is a discernible difference then we’re certainly not going to stand in his way.
“But he’s of the mind right now that there’s actually a better benefit in backing the kids and the guys who are here giving them more experience and more game time and build the squad depth that way.
“If he wants to supplement the squad by bringing in one two or more [overseas-based players] then he can but at the moment he’s making a deliberate decision to build that squad depth and experience with the guys that are here.”
Current policy and All Blacks pact
Asked if there is an official policy akin to the previous ones that required a certain number of caps for the Wallabies, Herbert confirmed that it was changed ‘a little while ago’ and Schmidt has quite a loose lead in who he is able to select.
“I think the change probably got lost on some people, we dropped the Test cap number down to one [I think] and there’s the ability for the Wallabies to bring in three players,” he explained.
“But if they want to bring in more, then they just simply need to put forward the reasons why and it’ll be considered.”
The All Blacks have a similar approach to Australia in regards to selecting overseas-based players but are more stringent as Scott Robertson is able to select any players based abroad who are contracted to New Zealand Rugby.
For example, Jordie Barrett will be eligible for selection when he heads to Leinster for his short-term playing sabbatical later this year.
Herbert revealed that Australia and New Zealand have a pact of sorts that neither nation would go full hog and open the selection door completely to all overseas-based players. This is in order to protect Super Rugby Pacific with better contracts on offer from overseas clubs than in New Zealand or Australia.
“There is a sort of an overarching agreement with New Zealand where we won’t we won’t go lock, stock and barrel,” he confirmed.
“But there is certainly some flexibility there, I do think though that people get a bit romantic about players playing overseas and thinking that they’ll immediately be the shot in the arm that we need.
“If we look back over the history of what’s happened, the only time I would say there’s been a really positive difference around not an individual’s performance but the team performance was when Samu [Kerevi] and Quade [Cooper] played together in that truncated version [of the Rugby Championship] where we had double headers down the Gold Coast and up in Townsville.”
He added: “I don’t know how many you’d actually add right now that would have an immediate difference on team performance. If you look at the French competition it’s different to Test footy as is the English Premiership.
“Not to say that guys couldn’t make an immediate difference but it is a bit different… with that international window the way it is, it does make it a little bit harder and probably easier to bring them in for the end-of-year tours. Peter [Horne] and and Joe [Schmidt} are far more qualified to talk on the the ability of these guys and bringing them in.
“We would be as supportive as we possibly can be because like everyone we want the strongest Wallabies team.”
