Schmidt explains Zebo omission
Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt says nothing prevents him from selecting overseas-based players but he is still reluctant to do so.
After Simon Zebo announced he would leaving Munster to join Racing 92 in the Top 14, the 29-year-old was then left out of the Ireland squad for the November internationals.
And Schmidt admits that locally-based players from Ireland's four provincial areas are a definite priority when it comes to selections.
“What we have done is try to back ourselves to keep people in the country as best we can. (Zebo) is gone to Racing 92 which means he’s in a country of 65 million people and 30 professional rugby teams, it’s economies of scale. We can’t necessarily compete, but we have our own eco-system here that we tend to be able to hang on to the vast majority of players,” Schmidt told the 42.
Asked if Zebo’s omission means that now a rule will stop overseas players playing for Ireland, Schmidt said:
“There is no policy. There is only an intention from the IRFU to best protect the provinces and the local game. We believe that the best way to do that is to select from within Ireland.
“The other real advantage is that selecting within Ireland, the players can be better managed.”
Even though Schmidt says Zebo can play his way back into an Ireland jersey in future, there is clearly inconsistency in that Jonathan Sexton was consistently selected whilst he played in France.
“I think at the time, I was new into the job,” admits Schmidt on the 2013 selection of Sexton.
“To set a rugby team up in the space of a week is an incredibly difficult job. To have a thought process that is very similar to the guy that was running the team was, as much as anything, a real convenience to me going into a new job. That was a part of Johnny’s selection.
“He is also proven to be, over the last two Lions tours, the starting player in a Lions test match. Zeebs has been great for us, but he hasn’t reached the same level of selection in those terms.
“Since Johnny left, Simon would be as high-profile as anyone has been. That’s why it is tough for us and it’s tough for people to accept.
“I do accept that people are disappointed because I am amongst those people. Is it emotive? It is for me because I’ve got massive respect for Simon, not just as a rugby player. He is an incredibly likeable young man. It is difficult for me as well.
"But I have a responsibility to try to think as broadly as I can and try to future-proof as best I can what we think the picture will be over the next two, over the next six years and the risks inherent in selecting people who have signed elsewhere.”
Zebo's omission comes nine months before he leaves Ireland. Meanwhile, Connacht’s centre Bundee Aki will probably start for Ireland and he is newly qualified having previously been non-committal to Ireland’s call.
Schmidt believes residency-qualified players shouldn’t be an issue. He feels presence and investment in community should be the source of an identity rather than a place of birth.
“People like to focus on the very small margin and make that into a lot bigger than it is, but so far the players who qualify to play for Ireland make up round about 6 or 7% of the players we have selected over the past four years.
“I think there are other people who would say that in the past we’ve had people who have played for Ireland who never, ever lived in Ireland, who had a grandmother or a grandparent of some sort who was Irish and therefore they played for Ireland but who never, ever invested in the local community.
“I don’t think I’ve seen someone invest more in the local community than some of the people who have qualified to play.
"I think it’s never going to be perfect and it’s hard for me to say that it’s perfect, because I qualify as an Irish citizen, I’ve lived here for seven years now – well, a total amount of nine years – and we love the place. Does that mean we’re any less Irish?
“It probably does because my accent is a bit weird. But I still think we’ve tried to invest in our local community as best as we can and our kids are very much invested in what they’re doing at university and secondary school, and I see very similar things happening with some of the players we have qualified.”