All Black Luke McAlister: what does he have to gain by staying home?
Sport
No contest
by Paul Lewis
Naked self-interest rules in rugby, but is it too late to change this situation?
Following 23-year-old All Black Luke McAlister’s signing with the British club Sale, complaints have surfaced about one so young leaving these shores to ply his rugby trade.
Even seasoned rugby commentators sound off on this subject, with one moved to say: “To see a 23-year-old All Black walk out the door after three years in the jersey is hugely disappointing. I’m disappointed in McAlister a little as well, although no one can deny a young man his time to earn some riches and see another part of the world.
“The problem is we are now a breeding ground for Europe. When they start stealing 23-year-olds, we know we have a problem. As much as the New Zealand Rugby Union [NZRU] can go on and on about the power of the black jersey, perhaps they will have to finally concede that dollars have some bargaining power, too.”
Stealing? Disappointed? Where have these people been the past few years?
Presumably not watching as the game lurched from meaningless test matches to rotated teams and reconditioned players to deliberately under-strength touring sides. It must have passed them by that international rugby has become a jumble of insignificant test matches with nothing hanging on them except yet another turn of the wheel in the four-year World Cup cycle.
That’s the point. Money, a young man’s urge to travel and even the “treachery” of turning your back on the national jersey have only a minor role in this. The biggest issue facing the game is that it is becoming a sport with little or no meaning at international level, except for the World Cup.
I’ve previously underlined just how much Graham Henry and New Zealand rugby have contributed to this slippery slope. Even if our heads are turned by the hopes of the All Blacks winning the World Cup, the major issue remains. Somewhere around the world, other international coaches will declare, as Henry did, that the World Cup is the goal and all else secondary.
I am no defender of All Blacks going overseas, but what do the likes of McAlister, Carl Hayman, Rico Gear and Chris Jack have to gain by staying home? They get three more years of meaningless nonsense masquerading as international rugby, assuming the Henry masterplan of focusing on the World Cup is repeated for another cycle.
So it’s three more years of rotation, of reconditioning programmes, of being subbed on for the last 90 seconds of a test match, of playing against inter‑national opponents in other deliberately weakened sides, and test matches with about as much impact as a snowball in an incinerator.
Balance that against a fatter pay cheque, a chance to see another side of the rugby world, a selection policy that includes the words “field our best team” and a chance to be a professional but outside the glare of the media and fan spotlight that applies in their home market.
Not much of a contest, is it? And I say that as a longtime devotee of the philo‑sophy first outlined to me by T P McLean – that, as a rugby writer, you must look at international rugby with an unrelentingly critical eye, as there is no higher honour than to represent your country.
Rugby is now firmly and clearly exposed to market forces – forces that arise because of the greater money on offer in the northern hemisphere and because successive events in international rugby have weakened the currency of the international game.
In other words, Teep’s “no higher honour” philosophy has been diluted, maybe irrevocably.
The NZRU’s critics are slapping them about for letting McAlister go. Yet we can’t have it both ways. We can’t allow the NZRU, on the one hand, to play a role in making international rugby more meaningless and then berate it for not keeping McAlister and his ilk at home by offering them something meaningful.
Rugby is facing a crisis and few have any faith that the International Rugby Board (IRB) – which seems increasingly incapable of governing its sport – will find the solution. A global calendar? An international “window”? Beating the rotation and reconditioning syndrome? I’ll believe it when I see it. Some of those issues have been around for many years and there has been no progress. Naked self-interest rules in rugby.
I hope I’m wrong, but I rate the IRB finding a solution to rugby’s problems right up there with world peace.
Email: sportscolumnist@listener.co.nz
