{"id":556102,"date":"2026-03-22T02:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T02:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/556102\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T02:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T02:17:10","slug":"damian-mckenzie-weighs-in-on-nzrs-approach-to-eligibility-after-departures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/556102\/","title":{"rendered":"Damian McKenzie weighs in on NZR’s approach to eligibility after departures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

All Black Damian McKenzie<\/a> has called for New Zealand<\/a> Rugby to change its player selection criteria and follow in the footsteps of the Wallabies.<\/p>\n

Overseas-based stars couldn\u2019t play for the Wallabies until Rugby Australia<\/a> eased their eligibility rules to allow select players to be considered for inclusion in 2015.<\/p>\n

It allows Australian representatives like Noah Lolesio<\/a>, Will Skelton<\/a> and Taniela Tupou<\/a> to remain in the hat for a callup as next year\u2019s Rugby World Cup<\/a> approaches.<\/p>\n

\"VideoWhat happens with simultaneous grounding over the try line? | RP<\/p>\n

Nigel Owens explains what happens in a simultaneous grounding situation, as seen in the Six Nations finale. Watch Whistle Watch on RugbyPass TV now. <\/p>\n

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\"VideoWhat happens with simultaneous grounding over the try line? | RP<\/p>\n

Nigel Owens explains what happens in a simultaneous grounding situation, as seen in the Six Nations finale. Watch Whistle Watch on RugbyPass TV now. <\/p>\n

New Zealand have held strong on their eligibility rules, meaning players like McKenzie will be prevented from playing for the All Blacks<\/a> if they move overseas.<\/p>\n

But the Kiwis are experiencing a player exodus, with Blues<\/a> captain Dalton Papali\u2019i<\/a> and Hoskins Sotutu<\/a> among those recently announcing moves to Europe.<\/p>\n

On Monday, McKenzie\u2019s Chiefs<\/a> teammate and speedster Etene Nanai-Seturo<\/a> unveiled he will play in France<\/a> next season, adding further pressure on New Zealand to follow Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a pretty well talked about point \u2026 it\u2019d be great for that to be able to happen,\u201d McKenzie, a 74-cap All Black, said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just want the best players playing for your country, right?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever way they (New Zealand Rugby) go on, we just have to stick with it and back it.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKenzie is more immediately focused on helping his Chiefs to overshadow James Slipper\u2019s historic 203rd game for the Brumbies<\/a> on Friday in Canberra.<\/p>\n

Slipper has been the centre of attention in the lead-up to becoming the most capped Super Rugby player after equalling former All Black Wyatt Crockett<\/a> on 202 games two rounds ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just admire a guy like him to be able to have such a long career, particularly as a frontrower,\u201d McKenzie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully we can spoil the party, but we\u2019ll celebrate that occasion with him after the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winger Corey Toole<\/a> is returning from a quad niggle for his teammate\u2019s milestone match and is one of the key ins for the Canberrans after coach Stephen Larkham<\/a> made a plethora of changes.<\/p>\n

The Brumbies will need all their available stars if they are to triumph over the team that beat them to make the competition\u2019s grand final last season, as Canberra aim to snap a five-game losing streak against their opponents.<\/p>\n

They will be without young gun Lachie Shaw (illness), prop Rhys van Nek (hand) and winger Ollie Sapsford<\/a> (leg) for the clash.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve spoken about some hoodoos (that we\u2019ve broken). The first one in Christchurch a few weeks back and last year against the Blues,\u201d Toole said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can take confidence out of those wins and bring it to tomorrow night.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Black Damian McKenzie has called for New Zealand Rugby to change its player selection criteria and follow…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-556102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556102","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=556102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}