The All-Blacks are digging the heels in.
Yesterday, the Australian Rugby Union made a potentially groundbreaking announcement, by saying that from now on any Australian with 60 caps and seven years professional experience at home will be available for selection to the national side.
It opened the door to Matt Giteau and Drew Mitchell returning to the test game, while it potentially means that both Will Genia and Quade Cooper could keep alive their test careers when they move to France after the World Cup.
However, New Zealand won’t be making a similar change, after their Chief Executive Steve Tew said they have no plans to change their stance on overseas players.
Dan Carter will end his All-Black career after the World Cup to join Racing Metro, while 93 cap centre Ma’a Nonu is heading to Toulon, but the loss of big stars isn’t twisting the arm of the NZRU to change the system.
Tew told a New Zealand radio station: “You never say never, but our policy is that to wear the All Black jersey you have to play your rugby in New Zealand.
“We have treated some players I guess with a little bit of flexibility in terms of their return to the country when they’ve become eligible but the core policy is if you’re not here you don’t play for us and we think that’s been a very important part of our player retention strategy and there’s no immediate thought of changing that.
However Tew did say that he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of making changes further down the line, but said that presently there are no plans to select overseas players.
“Right now the player market is incredibly competitive – it’s that time of the four-year cycle.
“We had quite a long discussion about it around the board table yesterday and we have no intentions of changing that policy but we’re constantly reviewing what we’re doing and if circumstances change we’d be foolish not to think about it but right now our policy is the policy and that’s the end of it.”
