{"id":350886,"date":"2025-12-16T03:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T03:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/350886\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T03:28:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T03:28:08","slug":"pat-lam-weighs-in-on-all-blacks-eligibility-with-proposed-rethink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/350886\/","title":{"rendered":"Pat Lam weighs in on All Blacks eligibility with proposed rethink"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pat Lam has proposed a rethink of New Zealand<\/a> Rugby\u2019s All Blacks<\/a> eligibility rules, saying the changes would help inject more cash into grassroots rugby and player development.<\/p>\n

The one-time All Black, now long-time Bristol<\/a> Bears coach, expressed some concern over the state of New Zealand\u2019s development pathways in an interview this week, but wasn\u2019t going to get caught up in problems without delivering some potential solutions.<\/p>\n

When identifying the issues, Lam pointed to trends in the recent NPC season, saying he saw some \u201creally good flashy skills\u201d on display, but a lack of fundamentals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked at the fundamentals of the game \u2014 not the flash stuff: Your scrummaging, lineout, lifting, mauling, catch, pass, carry, ball presentation, your breakdown work,\u201d he told Martin Devlin of DSPN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly, at the top level in New Zealand, it\u2019s great, but when I was looking down, I was thinking, my goodness, what\u2019s happening in club rugby? What\u2019s happening in NPC rugby? Because I just saw too many players who are fundamentally poor.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the fundamentals where Lam says New Zealand has fallen off the pace, internationally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where I believe England<\/a> has closed the gap,\u201d he added. \u201cThe amount of work that goes into the basics of the game is huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taking a wider lens view of the game, the coach considered the financial aspect of an All Blacks eligibility law that restricts selection to players under contract in Super Rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always a big believer in not opening the gateway and picking players from overseas, because you\u2019ve got to protect our competition,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the competition needs money. I\u2019m hearing stories of the money that the NRL is bringing in. Obviously, my good mate, Ali Williams<\/a>, and Auckland<\/a> football, that\u2019s kicked off as well; all these competing leagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then I hear a lot of mates, and John Afoa\u2019s filled me in about club rugby in Auckland and around the country, and a lot of friends have told me they need money, right? Where\u2019s the money? This is what I believe should happen: 50-cap All Blacks; to get 50 caps in the All Black team, you have established yourself as a player, as a leader, and in the culture. If you think of all the All Blacks there that have 50 caps or more, then look at the wage bill. What do you think the wage bill of all of those guys is?<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Rassie does, let the other countries take the 50-capped All Blacks and let them play. Some of them with 50 caps are probably getting on, and they\u2019re not going to get picked anyway. But the established ones, so I think of Scott Barrett<\/a>, he could easily be playing in Japan, the UK, or France, just like the Springboks do, and come back straight into the All Black environment, because he\u2019s part of the established leadership group. He can come and go.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone below that, you\u2019re still into Super Rugby. You still can\u2019t be picked. However, all that money that\u2019s freed up from those players alone can go straight back into growing their game and the grassroots, back into NBC and all of that. I just believe the only thing that\u2019s going to bring it through is the money to get that development going again, because without that, it\u2019s unfortunately going to just continue to do what we\u2019ve seen at the moment. And there is talent 100 per cent, but you\u2019ve got to develop that talent, otherwise they\u2019re heading off to other sports.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pat Lam has proposed a rethink of New Zealand Rugby\u2019s All Blacks eligibility rules, saying the changes would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-350886","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}