OPINION – Representing your nation or chasing the money…
It’s that simple.
There’s been so much discussion in the media as well as between rugby fans about whether players should be eligible for their country despite playing in provincial teams abroad. I tend to follow the belief, like many older rugby tragics, that players should either choose their nation or choose to follow the money abroad. I’ve been castigated for this a number of times but let me briefly explain.
For the record, I have no problem with players choosing to sign big cash deals and play rugby union abroad – let’s just make that clear. I understand that being a professional rugby player is a career with a definitive expiry date and players need to make hay while the sun shines. They need to be able to take care of their families and their futures and if by playing rugby abroad does that then there is absolutely no reason why they shouldn’t.
However, professional rugby players can not have their cake and eat it too… You should be able to go abroad but there’s a cost in doing so – the opportunity of representing your country.
Steffon Armitage continues to surfacing in the English media regarding his ineligibility for England because of his desire to play provincial football for Toulon in France. Ex-players, rugby columnists and rugby fan blogs have come out in support of English coach Stuart Lancaster who has more-or-less shut the door on Armitage’s international hopes and rightly so.
If you leave your country, you’re freeing up a spot for a team mate or a player attempting to rise in the ranks exactly as you had done and in doing so, should be freeing up the same opportunities that you had been afforded. In many rugby playing countries of the world, this is now not the case and it’s one of the many evils of the professional era.
In the current rugby world, the only teams that do not pick players playing abroad are England (in which the RFU decision is currently very tentative), Australia (though it has changed their player contracting policy very recently) and New Zealand (which has consistently held firm on its policy unless the player’s name is Sonny Bill Williams).
While the rest of the world seem to have folded to the trend of picking players that play their rugby abroad, there appears to be no real benefits of picking overseas-based players (but just to ensure that they don’t put big money over their nation) with three of the top six teams in the world rankings being New Zealand (1st), England (4th) and Australia (6th). With the country’s rugby bodies putting their faith in the players developed through their grassroots programs rising to provincial rugby so-on and so-fourth, they haven’t at all damaged their brands but instead strengthened their Union’s rugby core and improved their provincial teams.
By consistently offering players who stay at home a chance to represent the nation, they not only discourage players from going overseas but send a message to the players coming up through the grassroots development programs to stay and work hard in order to represent their country. And if the musty smell of money is too much than so be it.
Of course people will fall through the cracks like former Crusaders’ out-half Tyler Bleyendaal who’s now playing for Irish giants Munster at just 25 years of age. But should these countries consistently hold their hard-line on overseas-based players than these types of players who fall through the cracks will be few and far between.
Moving forward, the issue will be a tough one for rugby as a sport on a whole to deal with. With the game becoming faster and more physical, players will look to safeguard their futures and rugby bodies can just not compete with the type of money on offer in countries like France. Furthermore, in the face of increasing numbers of players moving abroad as well as growing public opinion, countries will continue to reform their player contracting policies (like the Wallabies have) in order to attract overseas-based players either back to the country or to stay in their country’s provincial tournaments longer.
With the amounts of money offered to talented internationals only going to increase, there is a likelihood that in 10 years, the problem of players having to choose between money and country won’t exist. I just hope, as a rugby tragic and a diehard fan, that we don’t get there.
But as Bob Dylan once said “money doesn’t talk, it swears”.