Sir Graham Henry has backed the idea of allowing All Blacks stars to ply their trade abroad and still be eligible for Test selection, given the financial burden New Zealand Rugby currently faces.
The 2011 Rugby World Cup winner was discussing the future of the sport in the country following the struggles of the national team over the past few years.
While Scott Robertson became the first person to be sacked as All Blacks boss, it was hardly rosy under Ian Foster or the latter stages of Sir Steve Hansen’s tenure with other countries catching up and, in South Africa’s case, overtaking them.
New Zealand find themselves in a strange position given the dominance they enjoyed for the majority of the previous 100 years, with pressure being heaped on the governing body.
NZ Rugby, therefore, need to adapt, and Henry believes that relaxing their overseas policy would be a start.
Jordie Barrett example
“My solution would be that we allow All Blacks to play overseas. There will be some criteria there, but I think the criteria needs to be reasonably flexible, maybe 20 Tests,” he told the DSPN podcast with Martin Devlin.
“What that does is it develops your rugby players. Look at Jordie Barrett. Jordie Barrett had a year at Leinster, and that year helped him immensely, not only as a rugby player but as a person, I would say. His influence on the Hurricanes right now is considerable, I would imagine.
“You’re bringing back ideas from overseas. What it does for players is it not only develops them as rugby players but develops them as people – they’re more worldly, they’re more confident. Look at South Africa.”
The overseas policy has become a huge debating point with NZR reluctant to bow to pressure, but those calls are only growing louder.
It has worked successfully for the Springboks and, although Devlin argued that it might not suit New Zealand, Henry believes that it is worth learning from South Africa.
“Get real, they are the best team in the world by a considerable margin, and most of their international players play overseas,” he said.
“It solves the financial problem to some degree, so somebody else, whether it be the French, the Japanese or English, are paying for these players, they’re developing as rugby players, they’re developing as people, they’re going to come back to the All Blacks and they’re going to be much more equipped to be a world-class player.”
Expanding Super Rugby
Henry also reckons that they are losing too many talented players because they only have five Super Rugby teams and he has proposed expanding that competition.
“With our own competition, you look at it and say: ‘Okay, we’re not developing enough young kids’. We’ve got five teams,” he added.
“Look at the NRL, they’ve probably got 700 contracts to our 200 contracts, lots of our best rugby talent is going to rugby league because they get the opportunity.
“Spread that competition to maybe 10 New Zealand sides. The Fijian Drua, Samoa and Tonga – as opposed to Moana Pasifika.
“Then we’re developing our own. The competition is maybe a wee bit lesser standard but more competitive, the Australians will be able to compete… and then you’ve got something that’s going to be able to develop our players.”
Henry was joined on the show by former NZ Rugby chair Brent Impey, who countered that some of those proposals may not be economically viable, revealing some shocking statistics in the process.
“Some economic realities. There has been no pay increase for New Zealand Super players since, I think, 2016 or 2017 and that’s because there’s just not the money there,” Impey said.
“When I joined New Zealand Rugby in 2012, we had $100m revenue and $100m cost. When I left in 2022, we had $260m revenue and $260m in costs, so it is a very, very large beast to continue to feed.
“The television deal is a substantial part of that revenue, and if you start weakening the competition by allowing top New Zealand players not to play in that competition, you’re going to get less money from Sky and down you go.
“South Africa have to some degree solved that issue by allowing French and Japanese clubs to pay for their top players, so their broadcast revenue is a significantly different model to what ours is. If you increase the number of New Zealand teams, where’s the revenue to fund those players?”
Getting players game time
Impey did agree on the player numbers, however, and insists that the current regime needs to find a way of getting them more game time.
“Graham has got a couple of strong arguments in favour of players who are not playing,” he added.
“We tend to pick 38 players plus 12 trainee players. One of the problems in New Zealand Rugby is that those young players aren’t playing enough and they’re really holding tackle bags.
“Look at that young boy, Harry Inch, who was from Nelson College. He was really highly regarded, was in the Crusaders training squad, and he’s switched over to the [New Zealand] Warriors. He never played rugby league in his life, but he’s getting game time.
“One of the critical issues for me isn’t because I think we can afford more teams, but I think the more critical issue is within the ecosystem, we do not have enough rugby for those younger players who are coming through to actually play.”
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