International Rugby Robbing Fans of World Stars

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SteemSports Presenter: @rjmcevoy

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SteemSports Editor: @mojorisin

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International rugby is seeing many of its talents unavailable for choice. From Australia to Argentina, South Africa to Wales, some of the leading nations have implemented a protectionist playing policy that is robbing rugby fans of seeing some of the best players playing for their countries.

Rhys Webb, the Welsh scrum half, is probably not the first victim of the policy of International rugby teams to pick players based overseas. Steffon Armitage of England, 2014 European Rugby Player of the Year, was one of the first high-profile cases of a player missing out because he wasn’t plying his trade in his home country.

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Both of these are problems a minor to those currently facing Argentina, South Africa and in the future probably Australia and even possibly New Zealand. All these countries have a policy to exclude players based overseas from International games, designed to bolster their own domestic rugby, and also reduce costs and logistics of gathering their players. Sadly, these policies are not working.

Argentina and South Africa are shadows of their former selves, with too many of their best players “putting their families first” by taking massive money from European clubs. Argentina, who enforce a zero tolerance rule, missed their stars badly in a dismal performance at Twickenham. Players such as the 24 year old Facundo Isa, their star Number 8 with 25 caps, who has left the Jaguares and National side to sign a 2 year deal at the richest club in Europe, Toulon.

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South Africa, who enforce a 30 cap policy, have a full team of stars playing in the European leagues who would add hugely to their team. Players such as Francois Steyn, Faf de Klerk, Bismarck du Plessis and many more huge stars, are not invited by the Springboks. Australia, with typical cunning, managed to formulate a 60 cap rule that allows their seasoned stars to play. With more younger players such as Jesse Mogg leaving before they hit the 60 cap threshold, however, the problem has just been delayed a few years.

New Zealand of course operate a zero tolerance policy too, but produce enough quality rugby players to cope with the loss of stars such as Carl Hayman, Charles Piutau and Steven Luatua. They also allow “sabbaticals” to players to top up their earning before coming back for the World Cup.

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Notwithstanding New Zealand, the elephant in the room is these policies are comprehensively failing. Domestic rugby in Argentina, South Africa, Australia and Wales, the latest country to join this group of protectionists, is failing. Crowds are down, excitement is low, clubs / regions are struggling, as are the national teams. Argentina are a shadow of their former selves, South Africa not fit to wear the shirt according to many. Australia do ok, importing Fijians and Rugby League stars to fill in gaps, but with Rugby League salaries set to increase by 50% in the next 5 years, this pipeline will surely dry up as well.

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And these policies are destroying International rugby. Yesterday’s England vs Argentina and Ireland vs South Africa were terrible, one sided spectacles. The best game was between 2 countries with no such protectionism, Scotland vs Samoa, who played out an 11 try thriller in Edinburgh. And with only England and France having the money to guarantee the players they want stay in the country, without change this problem will only get worse.

Next year Simon Zebo will be unavailable for Ireland, Rhys Webb and Ross Moriarty for Wales. More Australian and South African players will leave, as might more All Blacks. Soon there will be a time when these countries are forced to stop robbing paying supporters and devaluing the world game to play internal rugby politics. Let’s hope they do so before the International game is ruined forever.

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Image Sources:
www.bbc.co.uk
www.gettyimages.com
www.theworks.co.uk
www.blogspot.com
www.zimbio.com

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